Volkswagen Group Australia’s managing director, Jutta Dierks has taken a step up the corporate ladder, accepting a position based at Volkswagen AG head office in Wolfsburg, Germany.

Ms Dierks has been responsible for taking Volkswagen Australia from relative obscurity in 2005 to the number 10 position on the sales ladder in this country.

In her new role as Executive Director for the Americas, which commences shortly, she will be responsible for Volkswagen’s North and South American sales.

Ms Dierks has been the managing director at Volkswagen Group Australia since January 2005 and during her time with the company, the Volkswagen brand has grown dramatically in Australia to gain a firm hold in the top ten sales charts, while also expanding its dealer network and vehicle range.

Prior to her current role, Ms Dierks was the director of sales in the northern part of Germany, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at FAW-Volkswagen in Changchun, P.R. of China and based in Prague, Czech Republic as Finance Director for the Volkswagen/Audi importer.

Continuing the trend of women in the top position at VAG the new managing director is Anke Koeckler.

Ms Koeckler joined Volkswagen AG in 1996. During her career with Volkswagen AG she has held various senior sales positions, after initially, working in market planning responsible for the Scandinavian market and subsequently moved on to area management for Spain.

More recently, she worked as head of sales planning and promotion for Germany and her current position since February 2005 is director of sales for Germany’s northern region.

Details of Ms Koeckler’s start date will be announced shortly.