Dieter Althaus was appointed Vice President Corporate Marketing & Sales VW at Magna International (Germany) GmbH in the beginning of 2010. Before he changed to the management the trained educator (Physics, Mathematics) represented different political bodies in Germany. 2003 to 2009 he was the Prime Minister of the Free State of Thuringia; from 2003 to 2004 he was the President of the Federal Council. During his political career Althaus was honored with various award, one of them the solar energy award of the renewable energies in the year 2005 and the UMU- SBU award of the “Union Mittelständischer Unternehmern e.V.” in 2006..

Since 2007 Dr. Marcus Klopp is Head of Development New Products and Head Advance Development at the Brose Fahrzeugteile GmbH & Co. KG. Before that Klopp was Head of Seat Component Development, Head d Product and Process Engineering and Head of the Central Organization, all at Brose. From 1994 to 1999 he worked at the Frauenhofer institutes of product technic and automation (IPA) in Stuttgart and factory management and automation (IFF) in Magdeburg. Here he was head if the section product and process planning and deputy head of the institute. Klopp studied engineering at the TH Karlsruhe till 1993 and doctorate in Magdeburg in 1999.

From 2009 Prof. Dr.-Ing. Achim Kampker is head of the new chair for Product Management at the “Werkzeugmaschinen Labor (WZL) at RWTH Aachen. Here he has been already Chief Engineer for Product Management since 2004. Currently he is Head of StreetScooter Project, which is about the production of a series capable and cost effective electro vehicle for cities. With the help of a R&D alliance in the industry prototypes of the vehicle will be built 2011 for driving tests and the production of a small series will take place in 2012. Before his current work he was the Managing Director of an SBU in the atuomotive sector with more than 400 emplyees. Prof. Dr. Kampker studied engineering at the RWTH Aachen where he graduated in 2000 with a diploma thesis on strategies of Machinery and Plant Engineering. Not long after that he did his doctorate on the topic “Competence Based Business Expansion at Producing Companies.”.

Engelbert Wimmer was appointed Member of the Board of the Automobile Team of PA Consulting Group in 2006. Since the beginning of 2007 he is the head of the international group. With his relevant experience in the areas of product profitability and process optimization he s consultant OEMs and automobile producers in the DACH region. A further focus of him as a consultant is reengineering in distribution. Wimmer is responsible for clients like Volkswagen and Audi. Before Wimmer started working at PA Consulting Group he was Head of Competence Center Automotive Industry at Horvath & Partners.

Dr.-Ing. WIillibert Schleuter used to be the Head of Development Electric/Electronic at Audi AG from 1996 till 2008. Furthermore he was responsible as Module Manager in the Area Electric/Electronic in the whole Volkswagen Group. Before that Schleuter was iin a leading position at Robert Bosch GmbH. In November 2009 he published his book “The seven mistakes of Change Management and how to avoid them”, which was awarded with the Future Award Management Literature of the “Bundesverband Deutscher Unternehmen” for the best book I 2009. Schleuter studied Heavy Current Engineering and General Electrical Engineering before he did his doctorate on the topic “Electrical Performance of Accumulators for Electrical Vehicles” in 1982.

Rainer Schmückle is Head of Production and Purchasing at Mercedes-Benz and Chief Operating Officer at Mercedes-Benz Cars Daimler AG. Furthermore he is Vice President of the area Corporate Management and Accounting. Before that Schmückle was President and Chief Eyecutive Officer at Daimler Trucks North America LLC and Chief Officer of Daimler NAFTA Truck Operations from 2001 to 2005. Earlier he was President and Chief Executive Officer at Adtranz, which is a merger of the Technic Technology Division of Asea Brown Boveri (ABB) and Daimler-Benz. From 1994 to 1997 Schmückle, who studied Industrial Engineering, was the leading Vice President in the Area of Finance and Information Technics at Freightliner, a truck manufacturer and member of Daimler Trucks North America LLC.