Volkswagen do Brasil names Ralf Berckhan VP for Sales and Marketing

Wolfsburg, Germany, 23-5-2014 — /EuropaWire/ — Ralf Berckhan, currently Managing Director of Volkswagen Group Polska, has been named the new Vice President for Sales and Marketing at Volkswagen do Brasil. In a move that has been planned for some time, he succeeds Jutta Dierks, who is taking retirement. The appointment comes into effect in June.

Ralf Berckhan holds a degree in business studies and joined the Volkswagen Group in 1987. He began his career in sales controlling at Wolfsburg, subsequently moving to Mexico in 1990 and to ŠKODA in the Czech Republic in 1991 to perform the same function. In 1994, he was appointed head of marketing at SEAT in Spain, becoming head of marketing and brand management at Audi in Germany in 1999 and head of sales Western Europe and overseas at ŠKODA in 2001. In 2004, he took over as head of sales strategy and marketing at Volkswagen in Mexico, also assuming responsibility for sales and customer service in 2007. He was appointed board member for sales and marketing at Volkswagen de México in 2009. He assumed responsibility for setting up Volkswagen’s National Sales Company in Poland in 2011 and has been Managing Director of Volkswagen Group Polska since 2012.

Jutta Dierks joined Volkswagen in 1975. Following posts in controlling and human resources, she became finance director at the Group importer in the Czech Republic in 1992. In 1995, she moved to Kassel as regional director for Genuine Parts, taking charge of sales at FAW-Volkswagen in China in 2000. She headed sales Northern Germany on the Volkswagen brand’s home market from 2002. She became Managing Director of Volkswagen Group Australia in 2005, before assuming responsibility for Volkswagen Passenger Cars brand sales in North and South America in 2009 and was subsequently appointed Vice President Sales and Marketing at Volkswagen do Brasil in 2011.

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