The confidant of Mercedes boss Ola Källenius is promoted to head of the AMG tuning brand.
(Photo: Mercedes-Benz AG)
Vienna The Stuttgart-based luxury car manufacturer Mercedes-Benz is restructuring its management team below the board of directors in key areas. The most important personnel: Michael Schiebe will be the new managing director of the tuning subsidiary AMG on March 1st. The manager is currently working as “Chief of Staff” for CEO Ola Källenius, making him his most important employee. Internal speculation about his promotion has been going on for months.
Schiebe succeeds Philipp Schiemer, who instead is to look after particularly high-end customers of the brand with the star in a newly created position. With AMG, Schiebe will in future lead an absolute “cash cow” from Mercedes. The company based in Affalterbach (Baden-Württemberg) only develops the GT series and thus a few sports cars entirely itself. However, the performance brand equips more than 100,000 series Mercedes vehicles with particularly powerful engines every year. The business is extremely lucrative.
The so-called AMG line is even more profitable. This involves a series of visual changes such as sparkling radiator grilles that Mercedes customers can book as optional extras. Overall, AMG’s margin is based on that of Porsche, i.e. a return on sales of up to 19 percent.
Mercedes is not only changing management at AMG
With the position, Schiebe will also become head of the so-called TEV Group. This stands for “Top End Vehicle”, which at Mercedes includes not only the models from AMG but also the G-Class and the makes of the luxury brand Maybach.
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Schiebe has been one of the greatest hopes for the future of the Dax group for years. The manager has been working there since 2004 and was, among other things, Mercedes sales manager in Germany. Källenius is now promoting him to level 1 (E1), which only includes five to six dozen top managers.
The Swede is rejuvenating his team below the board in many other areas. Wolf-Dieter Kurz, the highly respected head of product strategy and thus in charge of a portfolio of more than 40 series, will soon be retiring. He is followed by another newcomer, Oliver Thöne.
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Thöne has had a steep career in recent years. The Handelsblatt only listed him as one of the 30 top talents in German business at the end of the year. The 38-year-old is currently in charge of production planning at Mercedes and shortly before that was strategic project manager for the most important series, the S-Class.
Thöne will be succeeded in the summer by Arno van der Merwe, currently CEO of Beijing Benz Automotive – a joint venture between Mercedes and the Chinese state-owned company BAIC. Jörg Bartels takes over in Beijing. Bartels is currently taking care of the integration of all vehicles in passenger car development in Sindelfingen.
Mercedes manager moves to armaments company Krauss-Maffei Wegmann
Bartels will be succeeded on July 1 by Christoph Starzynski, who has so far been responsible for the development of purely electric models such as EQS and electric drives. Torsten Eder, Head of Powertrain Development, will also take on Starzynski’s duties.
The tuning department of the Dax group is considered to be particularly profitable.
(Photo: AP)
Katrin Lehmann is new to Mercedes. In the future, the manager will head the “IT Research & Development” department. Lehmann currently works for the software giant SAP. There she leads a team of more than 3,500 software developers in the area of customer innovation and maintenance.
With Florian Hohenwarter, Mercedes also has a departure to mourn. At the end of March, the head of production in Europe and Africa will move to Krauss-Maffei Wegmann as Chief Operating Officer.
“The success of Mercedes-Benz is one thing above all: a team effort,” commented Källenius on the change in personnel. “Some of those who have been instrumental in this over many years are now beginning a new phase in their lives – they are entering well-deserved retirement or pursuing careers outside of the company.”
At the same time, the CEO is looking forward to working with “top executives who are new to the Mercedes-Benz family or who are taking on new responsibilities in designated key positions with us”.
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