Martin Winterkorn has resigned as Chief Executive of the Volkswagen Group.
In a statement published by VW, he said that as Chief Executive, he accepts responsibility “for the irregularities that have been found in diesel engines and have therefore requested the Supervisory Board to agree on terminating my function as CEO of the Volkswagen Group. I am doing this in the interests of the company even though I am not aware of any wrong doing on my part.”
Winterkorn’s resignation comes just days before the VW Group board of management was expected to vote on an extension of his contract to 2018. Crucially, the resignation leaves the VW Group – which has 600,000 employees across 12 brands, and 120 factories worldwide – without either a Chief Executive or a Chairman. Acting Chairman Berthold Huber will replaced by Volksagen’s former chief financial officer, Hans Dieter Pötsch, whose nomination as Chairman will be put to a vote in November.
