Press Releases
15 October 2009
Board member for Human Resources Dr. Horst Neumann awarded title of professor
Tongji Unversity conferred the title of Professor h.c. on Dr. Horst Neumann (60), Member of the Board of Management of Volkswagen AG for Human Resources, on Thursday. The prestigious university in Shanghai has thus honored Neumann for the systematic and scientific personnel development which he has pursued with success for many years. Furthermore, Tongji University has paid tribute to Neumann's intensive support for scientific cooperation and the exchange of students between Germany and China at Volkswagen.
The Board Member for Human Resources has placed the focus on the specialist development of employees at Volkswagen. He introduced job families which transfer and perfect knowledge and skills from generation to generation. Job family qualification, which is jointly organized by technical specialists and personnel developers, became the cornerstone of competence development – making Volkswagen a teaching and learning organization. Newly-created talent groups and support programs for the best young specialists offer additional perspectives for employment once training has been completed. Neumann's support was instrumental in developing Volkswagen's AutoUni into a center for research and teaching in the Group and significantly expanding cooperation with universities and students from China in this context as well.
Horst Neumann was born on June 26, 1949 in Leverkusen. He studied economics and social sciences in Hamburg and Berlin from 1967 to 1973. In 1995 he was awarded his doctorate with a thesis on "A comparison of the competitive strength of the German and Japanese car industries" and received the title Dr. rer. pol. Following posts as assistant to the Berlin Senator for Economic Affairs and as a senior manager in the economics department at the board of the IG Metall union, he was a member of the board of management and personnel director at Rasselstein GmbH and Rasselstein Hoesch GmbH from 1994 to 2000. In 2001, Neumann was appointed member of the board of management and labor director at ThyssenKrupp Elevator AG, Düsseldorf.
In July 2002, he became the member of the board of management of AUDI AG with responsibility for human resources. With effect from 1 December 2005, the Supervisory Board of Volkswagen AG appointed him member of the board of management of Volkswagen AG and the Volkswagen Passenger Cars Brand with responsibility for human resources and labor director. He has been responsible for human resources and organization since January 2007.
