Continental appoints company veteran to lead technology unit amid battle to supply 'brains' for connected cars

BERLIN -- Continental has appointed company veteran Gilles Mabire as its chief technology officer for the supplier's automotive technologies business.

Mabire will lead 17,000 engineers worldwide working on embedded software and the development of high-performance computers seen as an essential component of future vehicle architectures, the German supplier said in a statement on Wednesday.

Mabire, 49, has a degree in electronics and mechatronics and over 25 years of cross-business international management experience in the auto industry.

He will assume the post by Jan. 1, 2022 at the latest, succeeding Dirk Abendroth, who is leaving the company at his own request at the end of June.

Michael Hülsewies, 48, Continental's head of architecture and software, will temporarily take over the management of the CTO organization until Mabire fills the post permanently.

Born in France and educated in the UK, Mabire joined Continental in 2006.

He moves to the new role from his current job as head of Continental's head of commercial vehicles and services business unit.

Before joining Continental, he worked as the body controller system project manager at Siemens VDO, and as a project engineer for Robert Bosch.

Mabire's old employer Bosch is reportedly undergoing its own management changes soon, including the departure of CEO Volkmar Denner at the end of the year.

Bosch and rival Continental are currently battling to supply the "brains" for connected cars.

Continental is also among the companies developing 4D radar for automated vehicles and driver-assist systems.

The company also recently partnered with Amazon Web Services on an open automotive software development platform they say will expedite the development of these automated and autonomous driving systems.