The Volkswagen Group is driving digitalization forward in all areas, including communications. As part of its “Future Tracks” initiative, the Company is therefore setting up a section dedicated to the global digitalization strategy of the Group’s communication activities.
As Stephan Grühsem, General Representative of Volkswagen AG and Head of Group Communications, External Relations and Investor Relations, underscored: “The pace of social and technological innovation will become even faster. Digitalization is a key factor in this context, a factor we intend to proactively shape for the communications sector.”
The Chairman of the Group Works Council of Volkswagen AG, Bernd Osterloh, commented: “Digital technologies are penetrating deep into our company, and into the world of our customers and employees. There is an enormous innovative force behind these changes. Group Communications has the know-how to harness that power. The works council will make an active contribution here to further strengthening internal and external communication.”
According to Grühsem: “For communications in a global group such as Volkswagen, digitalisation means mastering exceptional challenges at top speed. The usual means of communication, some of them traditional, no longer suffice to do that.”
Effective April 1, 2015, Michael Brendel will head the “Global Digitalization Strategy” section, reporting direct to Grühsem. Brendel (44) held management posts at various news agencies before joining Volkswagen in 2008, where he has been Head of Corporate & Business Communications for the Group and the Volkswagen brand since 2012.
His successor is Andreas Lampersbach (52), currently Head of Corporate Communications at MAN SE. A lawyer and journalist, Lampersbach was departmental head at a daily newspaper in Hanover and headed communications operations at EXPO before joining MAN in 2001. He has led global communications at the Munich-based commercial vehicle and engineering group since 2009. In his new function, he reports direct to Stephan Grühsem.
