Wolfgang Bernhard

Wolfgang Bernhard (born 3 September 1960) is a former member of the Board of Management of Daimler AG.^[1][2] He served as the former President and COO of Chrysler from 2000 to 2004.^[3]

Bernhard Wolfgang in 2014

Early life

Bernhard was born Wolfgang Ayerle on 3 September 1960 in Böhen, Germany. He grew up as one of nine children and later took his mother's maiden name. He earned a master's degree in electrical engineering and economics from Technische Universität Darmstadt in 1986, an MBA from Columbia Business School in 1988, and a doctorate in economics from Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in 1990.^[4]

Career

After obtaining his doctorate degree, Bernhard joined McKinsey & Company in 1990 as a management consultant. In this capacity, he was assigned to Mercedes-Benz. In 1992, he joined Mercedes-Benz AG. Bernhard became CEO of Mercedes-AMG in 1999. Following the merger of Daimler-Benz and Chrysler in 1998, Bernhard was appointed President and COO of the Chrysler division in 2000.^[5] He continued in the position until he was slated to become the head of the Mercedes-Benz group in May 2004, but was passed over for the job just a day before his official switch. Bernhard subsequently resigned.^[6] Bernhard then served as the CEO of the Volkswagen brand for Volkswagen AG from 2005 to 2007.^[7] He was ousted from this position in January 2007 by Ferdinand Piech.^[8][9][10] Bernhard then rejoined Daimler in April 2009, and was on the Board of Management member responsible for commercial vehicles^[11] since February 18, 2010. He became Head of Daimler Trucks and Buses Division on April 1, 2013.^{[citation needed]}

On 9 February 2017, Wolfgang Bernhard announced that he would not renew his contract with Daimler in January 2018. On 10 February, Daimler let him go.^[12][13]

In February 2019 Bernhard replace Franz Gasselsberger on the supervisory board of Austrian aluminium group AMAG.^[14][15][16]