New exec for VW's compliance efforts
October 16, 2015
Volkswagen announced Friday it would welcome current Daimler executive Christine Hohmann-Dennhardt to supervise the auto maker's integrity and legal affairs as of January 1 next year and help the world's largest carmaker by sales recover from its diesel-engine emission test rigging scandal.
Daimler agreed to end its contract with Hohmann-Dennhardt ahead of its February 2017 expiry date.
The new arrival will be Volkswagen's first ever female executive board member. As such, she will yield greater power in the company than VW's compliance officer, who was called into being in 2001 to ensure adherence to ethical standards in the 12-brand company.
A new beginning
"We are glad to have won Christine Hohmann-Dennhardt for this responsible job and hope to profit from her competence and experience," VW supervisory board chief Hans-Dieter Pötsch said in a statement.
The newcomer has held several influential positions before. She made a name for herself as a judge at the Federal Constitutional Court and also served as justice minister in the western German state of Hesse.
By introducing a separate compliance executive, Volkswagen intends to send out a signal that it's serious about its stated intention to do everything in its power to prevent the current scandal from ever happening again and have an early-warning system in place to head off large-scale corporate misdemeanor.
hg/sri (dpa, AFP)