Skoda boss Schäfer has a lightning career

Dusseldorf Hardly anyone had him really on their list: At the moment, Thomas Schäfer is still at the helm of the Czech Volkswagen subsidiary Skoda. For less than a year and a half he runs the business in Mlada Boleslav, just under an hour’s drive northeast of Prague.

But in the new year, the 51-year-old has a great career at the Wolfsburg headquarters. In the summer, Schäfer will take over the management of the Volkswagen Passenger Cars brand as Chairman of the Board of Management because his predecessor Ralf Brandstätter is moving to Beijing as the new China Board member. A little later, Schäfer is likely to become head of the entire volume group, which includes Volkswagen cars, Skoda and Seat.

This would give Schäfer the responsibility for an annual production of around seven million vehicles, the heart of the entire group. Before the corona pandemic, the entire VW group had managed just under eleven million vehicles.