Thomas Owsianski is to take up the position of President of Audi China during the fourth quarter of 2018 as successor to Joachim Wedler, and will already be joining the top management team at Audi China from August 1, 2018. The 51-year-old manager was latterly Vice President Sales and Marketing of Volkswagen do Brasil Ltda. and, as First Executive Vice President, responsible for the Volkswagen brand in the South America region. Audi China President Joachim Wedler will be retiring in the fourth quarter after a successful career with the Audi Group spanning 34 years.
“Thomas Owsianski is an acknowledged sales expert and well acquainted with China, making him the best choice to continue the Audi success story in China,” says Board Member for Finance Alexander Seitz, who from September 1, 2018 will also be assuming responsibility on the Board of Management of AUDI AG for the strategic development of the China business. “We would like to thank Joachim Wedler for having vigorously promoted Audi’s growth trajectory in our biggest sales market. We will still be able to draw on Joachim Wedler’s expertise until the final quarter. We are particularly grateful to him for that.”
From 2014 to 2016, Thomas Owsianski was Executive Director at SAIC Volkswagen Automotive Co., Ltd. with responsibility for Sales and Marketing for the Skoda brand. Prior to that Owsianski, who hails from Lower Saxony, Germany, held senior positions in Sales and Marketing in Europe and the United States, including at Ford Motor Company and General Motors. Owsianski joined the Volkswagen Group in 2012 as Head of Global Marketing for Skoda.
Joachim Wedler took over as President of Audi China in 2015. In 2017 and again in the first half of 2018, Audi sales figures reached new record levels in China. As the highest-ranking representative of AUDI AG in China, Wedler has been instrumental in advancing the brand’s two-partner strategy. Together with the partners of the Four Rings, he has defined the parameters for the planned cooperation with SAIC and expanded the successful partnership with FAW. The agreements reached include more than doubling the Audi product portfolio in China over the coming years, along with the localization of seven new SUV versions and five new energy vehicles.
