Michael Hobusch was named the new president of Volkswagen Navarra as of September 1, replacing Marcus Hauptwho joins SEAT SA on the same date as vice-president of production and logistics, reports the German multinational this Friday morning.
Michael Hobusch (Minden, Germany, 02-04-1974), married with three children, is an industrial engineer from the University of Hanover, specializing in production technology. Hobusch, who manages correctly in Spanish, now takes up the challenge of piloting the transformation of the factory into a mixed factory that manufactures thermal and electric models at the same time.
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After joining the Audi AG student program in 1998, he gained additional experience within the Volkswagen Group in 1999 at Volkswagen Puebla (Mexico)graduated from SEAT SA (2001) and completed the international Volkswagen AG trainee program at Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles (2002), Hannover.
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From 2003 to 2006 he held various positions at the T5 Assembly in Hanover.
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Between 2007 and 2009, he was assistant to the Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Volkswagen Group.
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In 2009, he took over the general secretariat and the Corporate Strategy department of Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles in Hannover.
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In 2011, he joined Volkswagen Brand Central Planning in Wolfsburg.
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In 2012, he started his first stay in China working for FAW-VW in the commissioning of the Foshan 1 plant, with responsibility for the Project and Planning areas, in a joint project between Volkswagen and Audi.
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In 2016 he returned to Central Planning in Wolfsburg where, after holding various responsibilities, he was appointed Global Head of Planning Project Control.
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In 2020, he returned to China as responsible for Carplant 2 in Changchun and all Volkswagen B-Class launches.
Marcus Haupt, President of Volkswagen Navarra, will join SEAT SA on September 1 as Vice President of Production and Logistics from where, in addition, he will promote the One.Production collaboration model between factories in the Iberian Peninsula (Pamplona , Martorell and Palmela in Portugal), with the aim of realizing synergies and efficiencies within the VW Group. This Friday, his replacement is known, and until Hobusch was replaced by Miguel Ángel Grijalba, production manager for the past decade, who took over the management of the Landaben plant on an interim basis.
More than a year ago, on June 30, 2021, the VW group announced the brutal dismissal of the former president and director of the Navarre plant, Emilio Sáenz after months of investigation to get violated the company’s code of ethics. In February of this year, Sáenz and the multinational agreed on an agreement for his departure.
Haupt assumed the position of chairman of Volkswagen Navarra on September 1, 2021, although his appointment was already known in July last year.
During his tenure, the factory has consistently taken strong steps in the transformation of the factory, which will lead it to become a multi-brand factory for electric mobility. Various work teams from Volkswagen Navarra and SEAT SA have been working together for months on the development of future and competitive production and logistics products for the Small BEV models, which are expected to leave Martorell and Pamplona from 2025 and 2026.
Under the direction of Markus Haupt, for the first time in the history of Volkswagen Navarra in Pamplona, a third model was introduced on the same production line. The September 2021 launch of the Volkswagen Taigo was exceptionally successful.
At the end of last year, Volkswagen Navarra was awarded the Lean Award for the best factory in the European automotive sector for the way in which it “takes advantage of the opportunities of Industry 4.0 without throwing overboard the principles Lean”.