BERLIN -- Audi has appointed Gerd Walker to head production and logistics.
Walker will succeed Peter Koessler effective Feb. 1. Koessler, who has held the position since 2017, will retire.
Walker began his career at Audi in production and since 2018, he has been in charge of parent Volkswagen Group's production based in Wolfsburg.
Walker will be tasked with optimally utilizing the brand's factories as it ramps up electromobility and seeks to achieve climate-neutral production in all sites by 2025, Audi CEO Markus Duesmann saidin a statement.
Walker, a trained mechanical engineer, will also be responsible for continuing Audi's efforts to digitize production and make it more flexible.
A German native, Walker began his career in 1997 as a working student in concept design at Audi. In 2009, he became board speaker for production, before leaving in 2012 to spend four years in charge of production at Audi in Hungary.
"Gerd Walker started his career at Audi and he is extremely well acquainted with our brand and our philosophy," Duesmann said in the statement. "He will move production forward on its future trajectory and take the people along with him."
Koessler also began his professional career at Audi in 1986 as a trainee and eventually taking over various management functions within production, including nearly a decade as plant manager at Audi's largest location in Ingolstadt.
He is credited with beginning the brand's move toward sustainability, having introduced electrification of the global Audi production network.
Koessler also provided a clearly defined roadmap for sustainable production worldwide with Audi's "Mission: Zero" environmental program.
"In his more than four years as board member for production and logistics, Peter Koessler set essential courses for Audi's future viability and promoted the consistent transition of production to digital and flexible processes," Duesmann said. "The goal of making all our factories worldwide carbon neutral by 2025 is largely to his credit."
