Martin Winterkorn

Martin Winterkorn is a German former business executive who led the Volkswagen Group as chairman of the board of management of Volkswagen AG from 2007 until 2015. He studied metallurgy and metal physics at the University of Stuttgart, earned a doctorate in 1977 and began his career at Robert Bosch. He joined Volkswagen in 1993 as head of group quality assurance, later held technical development roles, and chaired the board of management of Audi from 2002. As chief executive he pursued the Strategie 2018 goal of becoming the world largest automaker and promoted the shared MQB and MLB vehicle platforms to cut development cost. He resigned on 23 September 2015 after the Volkswagen diesel emissions scandal became public, saying he was not aware of any wrongdoing on his part. He was later criminally indicted in the United States and in Germany, which he has denied, and his German trial has been postponed repeatedly.