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Audi CEO Markus Duesmann will start in April 2020, report says

Duesmann will bring engine development expertise from BMW to his new position at Audi.

Kyle Hyatt Former news and features editor
Kyle Hyatt (he/him/his) hails originally from the Pacific Northwest, but has long called Los Angeles home. He's had a lifelong obsession with cars and motorcycles (both old and new).
Kyle Hyatt
BMW Group - Annual Accounts Press Conference 2017
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BMW Group - Annual Accounts Press Conference 2017

We're betting Markus Duesmann's engine development experience will pay dividends in his new role as Audi's CEO.

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Audi's been working hard for the last few years to distance itself from the Dieselgate scandal that rocked the automotive industry. Of course, having its CEO Rupert Stadler arrested and detained didn't help matters either, so the brand went on a hunt for a new leader.

It found one last October in the form of Markus Duesmann, an engine development expert who at the time was working for . Unfortunately for Duesmann, it's taken this long to get BMW's board of directors to drop its protest of his new appointment, but now it's been confirmed that he'll take over for Bram Schot in April 2020, according to an article published Saturday by Reuters.

Duesmann isn't the first prominent BMW executive to get headhunted by the VW group either. The sharp among you will remember that VW boss Herbert Diess came over from the Bavarian automaker a few years ago to fill disgraced CEO Martin Winterkorn's shoes.

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