FAW-VW reorganises marketing team after senior management corruption scandal

The management changes are thought to have been triggered in part by a corruption scandal that rocked FAW-VW early last year, and to prepare the organisation for a further push to reach sales of 1.5 million vehicles per year.

A source close to the company told Campaign Asia-Pacific that the restructuring was triggered in part by the arrest of Jing Guo Song, sales planning vice-president of FAW-VW in Changchun, on corruption charges in 2012.

Management changes have been made on both sides of VW's joint-venture:

• David Goggins, vice-president of marketing and strategy for the past three years, has moved on to run North China, FAW-VW's and Volkswagen Group's largest sales region in Asia. Goggins was credited with adding much-needed emotional appeal to the sturdy FAW-VW brand through the successful launches of recent new models, including GTi, CC and Sagitar.
• Martin Biswurm, former marketing director of the VW side, moves to run marketing at VW Korea. Goggins and Biswurm are succeeded by Bruce Rosen, formerly marketing director of VW Canada, and Cedric Jornel, marketing manager at Skoda France.
• On the Chinese side, FAW marketing veteran Wang Feng moves to a sales role in FAW-VW's Eastern region and is replaced by Hu Shenggang from service marketing.
• Various other staff changes were made within the media and communications teams. Hu Yong stays on as the sales and marketing head and board member.

The source added that the overall changes within commercial operations have affected 80 per cent of the FAW-VW management team. This follows a similar shake-up of the FAW-Audi brand last year.

Campaign reported the marketing leadership changes at Volkswagen Group Import Company China (VGIC) and Volkswagen Group (WGC) in early February.