Gernot Döllner
Chief Executive Officer
2023 – Present
3 years (current)
Key Decisions & Impact
Döllner studied mechanical and vehicle engineering in Braunschweig, Germany and Waterloo, Canada, and joined Volkswagen as a doctoral student in 1993 before moving to Porsche in 1998, where he eventually ran the Panamera model line from 2011 to 2018. He returned to Volkswagen Group headquarters in 2021 to lead group strategy before Audi's supervisory board picked him to replace Markus Duesmann as CEO in September 2023.
Legacy
Gernot Döllner assumed the role of CEO in September 2023, bringing extensive experience from his previous tenure as Head of Vehicle Development at Porsche. His primary mandate is to resolve the severe software development bottlenecks within the CARIAD division and accelerate the rollout of the Premium Platform Electric (PPE) architecture. Döllner has implemented a decentralized software development model, bypassing the centralized CARIAD structure to allow Audi’s engineering teams in Ingolstadt to directly integrate third-party operating systems and user interfaces, a strategic pivot that unblocked the delayed launch of the Q6 e-tron.