Page 25 - Minister Alex Schwengle
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BUSINESS A25
Saturday 26 September
VW taps head of Porsche to be new CEO amid emissions scandal
GEIR MOULSON company faces unprece- ally, our and your patience sion to go with an insider is tion.”
PAN PYLAS dented challenges. I have will be tested, but ... care- that some in the markets Acting supervisory board
Associated Press respect for this, but I am fulness is even more impor- could consider Mueller Chairman Berthold Huber
BERLIN (AP) — Volkswa- also facing this task with tant than speed.” “tainted” by association lauded Mueller’s “great
gen’s board appointed the confidence.” Mueller said it is “decisive with the crisis, said Jason strategic, entrepreneurial
head of its Porsche unit as Speaking at Volkswagen’s that nothing like this ever Hanold, managing partner and social competence”
CEO on Friday, handing headquarters in Wolfsburg, happens at Volkswagen of Evanston, Illinois-based and “critical and construc-
longtime company insider tive” approach.
Matthias Mueller the task Newly appointed Volkswagen CEO Matthias Mueller, second from left, poses for a photograph “He knows the group and
of trying to lead the world’s with, from left, Bernd Osterloh, head of the workers’ council, Berthold Huber, acting chairman of its brands well and can im-
top-selling automaker past the supervisory board,, Stefan Weil, governor of German state Lower-Saxony and member of the mediately engage in his
a growing emissions scan- supervisory board, and Wolfgang Porsche, member of the supervisory board, after a press state- new task with full energy,”
dal. ment following a meeting of Volkswagen’s supervisory board in Wolfsburg, Germany, Friday, Sept. Huber said.
The company also said it 25, 2015, after CEO Martin Winterkorn resigned on Wednesday amid an emissions scandal. Winterkorn, who had been
was suspending some em- CEO since 2007, said he
ployees and would reor- (AP Photo/Michael Sohn) took responsibility for the
ganize its North America “irregularities” found by
operations after admitting Germany, he said he would again. So we will introduce executive search firm Ha- U.S. inspectors in VW’s die-
it used a piece of engine “do everything to win back even tougher compliance nold Associates. sel engines, but insisted he
software to cheat on die- the trust of our custom- and governance standards The upside, he said, is that had personally done noth-
sel car emissions tests in the ers, our employees, our in the company.” Mueller’s knowledge of ing wrong.
U.S. partners, investors and the He pledged to make Volk- the company offers the Volkswagen offered few
The decisions come after whole public. swagen “an even stronger chance of “faster traction new details Friday on the
the previous CEO, Martin “We stand by our responsi- company.” to help root out the prob- fallout from the scandal.
Winterkorn, quit the job this bility,” he said. “Occasion- The main risk of VW’s deci- lems within the organiza- “The supervisory board has,
week over the scandal, on the basis of current in-
which has shredded the formation, recommended
company’s reputation. suspending some employ-
The company could be ees immediately until the
heavily fined and hit with whole case is cleared up,”
class-action lawsuits cost- Huber said. “This has, in
ing billions. It will also have part, already happened.”
to fix programming it has He did not elaborate, and
said is in some 11 million a statement from Volkswa-
cars worldwide, far more gen did not specify who
than the 482,000 identified the employees were, at
last week by U.S. authori- what level or where they
ties. worked.
The 62-year-old Mueller, The head of VW’s employ-
who has spent his career ee council, Bernd Oster-
with Volkswagen Group loh, said that Volkswagen
brands, acknowledged “needs a new beginning”
that he was taking the job with a “different company
“at a time in which our culture.”q
Novartis launches discount program for chronic disease drugs
LINDA A. JOHNSON are top killers. A dove flies near the logo of Novartis India Limited at their head Latin America and Eastern
AP Business Writer In low- and middle-income office in Mumbai, India. Novartis plans to sell medications for Europe.
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — No- countries, about 28 million heart disease, diabetes and other non-infectious diseases for Even at the $1 per month
vartis plans to sell medi- people now die every year just $1 per month’s supply in poor countries. price, Novartis Chairman
cations for heart disease, from heart disease, diabe- Joerg Reinhardt said he
diabetes and other non-in- tes, respiratory disorders (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool) thinks Novartis Access will
fectious diseases for just $1 and cancers, according to be financially sustainable
per month’s supply in poor the World Health Organiza- The Swiss drugmaker will nya and Vietnam. over the long term and
countries. tion. That toll is expected to start shipping the medica- It likely will expand to more could eventually cover all
Drugmakers’ charity pro- grow in the future. tions by year’s end to gov- countries next year and ul- its costs, due to its large
grams have usually fo- So Novartis, the world’s ernment and charity health timately could reach 25 to scale.
cused on infectious dis- biggest drugmaker, said programs in Ethiopia, Ke- 40 countries in Africa, Asia, That’s partly because No-
eases and ones spread by this week that it decided to vartis is a top maker of ge-
parasites, including ma- focus its program on those neric drugs, through its San-
laria, HIV and tuberculosis diseases. Called Novartis doz unit, and all but one of
— diseases that have long Access, it includes 15 drugs the drugs in the program is
been major killers in devel- for high blood pressure, generic.
oping countries. chronic heart failure, cho- Drugs for Novartis Access
But chronic diseases relat- lesterol problems, diabe- will be made at existing
ed to lifestyle and genetics tes, breast cancer, asthma Sandoz factories around
are becoming more com- and respiratory infections. the world and will have
mon in developing coun- The company expects that the same quality standard
tries, following the trend it will help many more pa- as its medicines sold else-
in wealthy nations, where tients get the medications where, Reinhardt said.q
heart disease and cancer included.
