POAHY Porsche Automobile Holding SE (PK)

By Ulrike Dauer And Monica Houston-Waesch 

FRANKFURT-- Volkswagen AG on Friday named Matthias Mueller as the company's new CEO, tasking him with the challenge of steering Europe's biggest car maker through an emissions-cheating scandal.

The 62-year-old Mr. Mueller will keep his post as chief executive of the group's Porsche AG unit, a job he held for five years, until a successor has been named.

The company also said it would streamline its management structure. From Nov. 1. Winfried Vahland, now chairman of Volkswagen's Czech brand Skoda, will take over leadership of North America. Michael Horn will remain President and CEO of Volkswagen Group of America. Bernhard Maier will take the helm of the Skoda brand, replacing Mr. Vahland.

Christian Klingler, Volkswagen AG management board member in charge of sales, will leave the company because of differences regarding business strategy that aren't related to recent events, the company said.

The car maker also said some employees have been suspended, but it didn't identify them.

Mr. Mueller's main goal as CEO will be to lead the group through the crisis unfolding after Volkswagen acknowledged it deliberately evaded standards on emission tests for diesel engines on up to 11 million vehicles. Volkswagen's previous chief executive, Martin Winterkorn, resigned Wednesday over the scandal that has cost the company nearly a third of its market value.

In addition, the new CEO will likely need to reorganize the sprawling company with nearly 600,000 employees and 12 independent brands.

Mr. Mueller, a career company executive who began as an apprentice in the company's Audi unit during high school in the 1970s, is known internally as someone who can balance conflicting forces.

At his appointment to lead Porsche in 2010, then-supervisory board Chairman Wolfgang Porsche noted Mr. Mueller's "unusual competence at the interaction between an independent brand and an integrated leading global automobile manufacturer."

Uwe Hück, deputy chairman of Porsche's supervisory board, welcomed Mr. Mueller. "Through many conversations with Matthias Mueller, I know that he will preserve the autonomy of Porsche," Mr. Hück said.

Last year, when Mr. Mueller's tenure was extended five years, Mr. Hück called him "an employer with a heart."

Mr. Mueller, a close lieutenant of Mr. Winterkorn, officially joined Audi in 1978 after studying computer science. In 2007, he was made the head of project management at the Volkswagen group and at the VW brand.

On Tuesday, Volkswagen said as many as 11 million cars were affected and possibly subject to a global recall. The company issued a profit warning and announced it was taking a EUR6.5 billion ($7.27 billion) provision against earnings to cover the costs of fixing the software.

Write to Ulrike Dauer at ulrike.dauer@wsj.com and Monica Houston-Waesch at nikki.houston@wsj.com

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 25, 2015 13:48 ET (17:48 GMT)

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