New member of the Board of Management for Development at Volkswagen Passenger Cars

Thomas Ulbrich, member of the Board of Management for Mobility at Volkswagen Passenger Cars, is to become member of the Board of Management for Development as of February 1. He will succeed Frank Welsch in this role, who is taking over as Head of the realigned Group Quality Assurance. Following the successful market entry of the first MEB-based vehicles, the tasks of the board-level management function for electric mobility managed by Thomas Ulbrich will be transferred back to the areas of responsibility of the respective divisions.

Ralf Brandstätter, CEO of Volkswagen Passenger Cars, said: “Thomas Ulbrich has emphasized important points on the topic of electric mobility for our brand. He saw the ID.3¹ and ID.4² from sketch to street in record time and made significant contributions to making electric mobility suitable for widespread use. An exceptional performance under special conditions. We see the fact that Thomas Ulbrich is available as Board member for Development after accomplishing this great task as a clear commitment to the brand and to our future strategy.”

Thomas Ulbrich will succeed Dr. Frank Welsch, who has been Head of Development at Volkswagen since 2015.

“Frank Welsch assumed responsibility for Development at Volkswagen Passenger Cars in challenging times. He initiated and continuously drove forward the profound technological change toward electric and digitalized mobility at Volkswagen with calm, foresight and great competence. For that, I would like to express the deepest gratitude on behalf of the Board of Management. I wish him all the best in his new role,” said Brandstätter.

Thomas Ulbrich

Thomas Ulbrich completed training as a motor vehicle mechanic and studied vehicle construction at the Hamburg University of Applied Sciences. The chartered engineer began his professional career in 1992 in plant logistics in Wolfsburg, and assumed a management role there in 1995. In 1996 Ulbrich took over as Head of Logistics at FAW-Volkswagen in Changchun, China. Two years later, he took on responsibility for Segment II assembly in the Wolfsburg plant. From 1999, Ulbrich was Head of Logistics at the Emden plant. From 2001 to 2008, he was managing director and management spokesman at AUTO 5000 GmbH in Wolfsburg. In 2008 he was appointed member of the Board of Management responsible for Production ofVolkswagen Commercial Vehicles in Hannover. In 2010 Ulbrich switched to SAIC VOLKSWAGEN in China as Technical Executive Vice President. There, he managed production and logistics at a total of five sites. From April 2014 to January 2018, Ulbrich, as a member of the Brand Board of Management of Volkswagen Passenger Cars, was responsible for the Production and Logistics division. Afterwards he was appointed the board-level management function for electric mobility.

Frank Welsch

Frank Welsch studied mechanical engineering at RWTH Aachen University. Following this, he attained his doctorate at RWTH Aachen’s Institut für Konstruktionstechnik (Institute for Construction Technology). In 1994 Welsch joined the Volkswagen Group in research in the vehicle concepts department. After four years, he switched to Development at Volkswagen Passenger Cars where he held several management positions. From 2009, Welsch was Head of Development at Shanghai Volkswagen and he returned to Wolfsburg as Head of the entire assembly development (exterior, interior, lighting and vehicle security) for all Volkswagen Passenger Cars model lines in 2011. From September 2012, Dr. Frank Welsch switched to Škoda Auto a.s., where he was Head of Development as a member of the Board of Management in Mladá Boleslav, Czech Republic. As of December 2015, Welsch has been a member of the Volkswagen Brand Board of Management with responsibility for the Development division.
 

1. ID.3 - power consumption (NEDC) in kWh/100 km: 15.4-14.5 (combined); CO2 emissions in g/km: 0; efficiency class: A+

2. ID.4 - power consumption (NEDC) in kWh/100 km: 16.9–16.2 (combined); CO₂ emission in g/km: 0; efficiency class: A+