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Dr. Herbert Diess was born on 24.10.1958 in Munich.

He began studying automotive engineering at the Munich University of Applied Sciences in 1977. From 1978 to 1983 he studied general mechanical engineering at the Technical University of Munich.

After graduating as a graduate engineer, Dr. Herbert Diess was a research assistant at the Institute for Machine Tools and Management Sciences at the Technical University of Munich, where he received his doctorate in 1987 in the field of assembly automation. From 1988 he was head of the department of assembly automation at the institute.

In 1989 he continued his professional career at Robert Bosch GmbH in Stuttgart. In 1990, Diess was appointed head of planning and maintenance at the Robert Bosch plant in Treto, Spain, where he was appointed technical director in 1993.

In 1996, Diess moved to BMW AG in Munich, where he became head of long-term and structural planning. From 1997 he was head of process consulting – initially in the Production department, then from 1998 in the Development and Technology department. He then went to England. In 1999 he took over as plant manager in Birmingham, moving to Oxford a year later as plant manager. In 2003, Dr. Herbert Diess was appointed head of BMW Motorrad.

In 2007 he was appointed to the Board of Management of BMW AG with responsibility for Purchasing and Supplier Network. In 2012, he became Board Member for Development at BMW AG.

On 1 July 2015, the Supervisory Board of Volkswagen AG appointed Dr. Herbert Diess as Member of the Board of Management of Volkswagen AG and Chairman of the Volkswagen Passenger Cars brand.

With effect from 13 April 2018, the Supervisory Board of Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft appointed Dr. Herbert Diess as Chairman of the Board of Management of Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft.

With effect from 11 January 2019, the Supervisory Board of Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft has assigned Dr. Herbert Diess, Chairman of the Board of Management, the task of simultaneously heading the Group Board of Management China.

With effect from July 1, 2020, the Volkswagen Group is reorganising the responsibilities for managing the brand and the Group: Dr. Herbert Diess will thus be given more freedom for his tasks as Group CEO. On the Group Board of Management of Volkswagen AG, he will continue to have overall responsibility for the Volkswagen Passenger Cars division and for the Volume brand group.