Biography | Thomas Schäfer — The Brand Chair Announced Across the Canal from Autostadt

People treat the Volkswagen brand job as a title that has always lived in Autostadt's glass halls.

The appointment was a board decision dated 1 July 2022.

From that day Schäfer sat on the Volkswagen AG board as chief executive of Volkswagen Passenger Cars and head of Brand Group Core.

He had already taken the operating job on 1 April 2022, his fifty-second birthday.

The predecessor on the brand chair was Ralf Brandstätter, sent to China.

The registered office remains Berliner Ring 2, on the factory side of the Mittellandkanal.

Autostadt, opened on 1 June 2000, is the public ground a visitor can walk without a plant pass.

It sits between the city and the works, and it is the honest pin for a promotion announced from Wolfsburg rather than from a private office.

In July 2024 the supervisory board extended his contract through 2030.

The volume brands under Brand Group Core include Škoda, SEAT and CUPRA, and Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles.

The halls across the water are where the cars are built.

This bank is where the company chose to meet the public.

Photo: Autostadt on the Mittellandkanal, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Portrait: Jens Koch, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons