TITLE: CEO
COMPANY: Volkswagen Group
BASED: Wolfsburg, Germany
AGE: 60 
NATIONALITY: Austrian

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

Diess was appointed a senior executive in charge of procurement at BMW in 2007 before heading up development five years later. He was in the running to take over at BMW Group as CEO, then accepted an offer to run the Volkswagen brand in July 2015. In April last year, he was appointed VW Group CEO. 

REASON FOR WINNING

Only a year into his term as VW Group CEO, Diess has unveiled one of the most aggressive strategies for managing the technological transformation in the industry. Not only has Volkswagen committed itself to a cumulative 20 million EV sales by 2028, it has arguably the most ambitious plan for mobility services, forming partnerships with major tech companies such as Microsoft to create and manage its own digital ecosystem that aims to attract 5 million users each year for the VW brand alone.