Hildegard Wortmann: With tough management methods in the VW board

Hildegard Wortmann is the first woman on the board of directors at Audi and has also been responsible for sales at Volkswagen since February.

Before that, she was active in the company at BMW for many years. There she gathered admirers, but also critics.

Wortmann is accused of harsh management methods. Former companions tell of a career-oriented and ambitious manager who steps down on her way to the top.

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Hildegard Wortmann polarizes. The 55-year-old is one of the most sought-after managers in Germany. As a career changer, she managed to establish herself as the first woman on the Audi Executive Board. Since February 2022 she has also been responsible for sales at Volkswagen. But her leadership style is controversial. On her way to the executive floor of a male-dominated industry, she is tough.

Wortmann comes from the Münsterland. The state-certified foreign language correspondent also studied business administration here. This was later followed by a Master of Business Administration in London. She earned her first spurs at the British group Unilever before becoming Marketing Director at Calvin Klein.

The move to the automotive industry took place in 1998. From Calvin Klein he went to BMW in Bavaria. In 2001 she became responsible for mini-marketing. A thankless business at the time. But Wortmann helped the dusty brand to make a comeback and get more attention in the industry.

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“Comes from BMW, is a woman – well, we’ve been waiting for her here”

Wortmann is not a qualified engineer or marketing expert. Still, she slowly worked her way up. In 2010 she was given product responsibility for the BMW brand. A further rise did not seem out of the question. According to her, she was even intended for the sales director at the traditional car manufacturer. One of their sponsors was none other than former BMW boss Harald Krüger. But Wortmann lacked the experience as a state or regional manager at the time, as it is said.

Wortmann was not given a seat on the board. Instead, she was reassigned to the Asia Pacific sales region. By then, others had long since become aware of her. This also included the recently resigned Volkswagen boss Herbert Diess, who was still head of the brand at VW at the time. Wortmann rejected initial attempts to find a job at the subsidiary Audi. But after her transfer, the manager saw her chance and went to Ingolstadt in 2019 as the first female board member.

The restart was not without problems. “I thought they thought: Comes from BMW, is a woman – well, we’ve been waiting for her here,” she revealed in an interview with Business Insider in October 2021. Her main task at the time was to improve the company’s image, which had been damaged by the emissions scandal. She should tell a new story about Audi. The word “diesel scandal” never came up in conversation at the time. Instead, Wortmann talked about a “crisis”. That too is part of their strategy.

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It quickly became clear from the outside that someone new was responsible for sales and marketing at Audi. Social media presence ramped up. Wortmann wanted to present the company and himself in a new light.

Internally there was criticism at the time. Accordingly, Wortmann would distort reality. The accusation: You present support services from sister brands as Audi’s technical masterpieces. An example: the Audi e-tron GT. Essential components of the electric luxury sedan come from the Taycan from Porsche. “Mrs. Wortmann conceals this, but speaks of a lighthouse from Ingolstadt,” said a Porsche manager.

Wortmann’s career advancement: “There was blood splattered”

Her motto is: “I don’t want to be a manager – I want to be a leader.” That’s why Wortmann is also looking for contact with young people at Audi who are familiar with the digital world. She now has almost 100,000 followers on LinkedIn.

The staging is professional. Wortmann wants to create a new sense of community and break up old structures. This ensures recognition, but also leads to criticism of her and her leadership style. “Hildegard Wortmann is extremely career-ambitious and ambitious,” reports a former companion at BMW about her “Manager Magazine”. The accusation: Wortmann steps down and bucks up. “There was blood splattered,” it said.

Her departure from BMW was also not without turbulence. Accordingly, she ended up having massive problems with dealers and Australia boss Marc-Heinrich Werner. Wortmann won the fight. Werner had to give up his post for a severance payment. The 55-year-old also cracked down on Audi. Only your word counts. Since then, long-time employees have had to leave or left voluntarily.

In Wolfsburg, she has been taking the reins on the board since February. She knows about her critics and feels the knives in her back, as she says in an interview with “Manager Magazin”. Publicly, however, she is down-to-earth: “I come from a humble background and never expected to get this far,” she says. “I’m just grateful and proud of what I’ve achieved.”

But in this male-dominated industry, elbows need to be stretched out. Nobody knows that better than Wortmann. If she continues like this, she could make it to the top despite her critics – and maybe become the first CEO of a German car brand.

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