Volkswagen‘s efforts to draw the line under its dieselgate scandal were dealt a blow on Thursday after the German automaker fell out with the compliance chief it worked with to assist, prompting her departure from the company.
Christine Hohmann-Dennhardt, 65, was quitting Volkswagen’s board “due to differences in their understanding of responsibilities and future operating structures within the function she leads,” the automaker stated.
Volkswagen included that the previous judge, poached just more than a year ago from competing Daimler and one of the few women on a leading German company board, was exiting by mutual approval, without being more specific.
The automaker worked with Hohmann-Dennhardt, an outsider with a credibility for strength and the first female to join its board, for the new post of board member for stability and legal affairs at the height of the diesel scandal in October 2015 amidst guarantees to alter its top-down, engineering-driven culture.
“Volkswagen will continue to press forward with modifications to its way of thinking and working,” it stated on Thursday.
Handelsblatt initially reported that Hohmann-Dennhardt was to leave.
Two sources near to Volkswagen stated it was not Hohmann-Dennhardt however procurement chief Francisco Javier Garcia Sanz and Volkswagen lawyer Manfred Doess who had led the negotiations with the U.S. Department of Justice that resulted in a $4.3 billion settlement previously this month.
