- Martin Winterkorn
Martin Winterkorn (born May 24, 1947) is the chairman of Volkswagen AG. He succeeded Bernd Pischetsrieder as chairman on January 1, 2007. Prior to that, he had been the CEO of Volkswagen's Audi brand. In the nineties, Winterkorn was Volkswagen's board member in charge of technical development and was instrumental in getting Volkswagen CEO Ferdinand Piech to approve the production of the New Beetle. He later served as Piech's corporate executive director of development.
- Steve Jobs
Steven Paul Jobs (born February 24 1955) is the co-founder and CEO of Apple and was the CEO of Pixar until its acquisition by Disney. He is currently the largest Disney shareholder and a member of Disney's Board of Directors. He is considered a leading figure in both the computer and entertainment industries. Jobs' history in business has contributed greatly to the mythos of the quirky, individualistic Silicon Valley entrepreneur, …
- Ferdinand Porsche
Prof. Dr. h.c. Ferdinand Porsche was an Austrian automotive engineer. Porsche was born in Vratislavice nad Nisou, Bohemia, which is now part of the city of Liberec in the Czech Republic, known also as Maffersdorf in German. Porsche is best known for designing the original Volkswagen Beetle and for his contributions to advanced German tank designs: Tiger I, Tiger II and the Elefant.
- Bernd Pischetsrieder
Dr.-Ing. e.h Bernd Pischetsrieder is an automobile engineer and manager. He was born on February 15, 1948, in Munich, Germany and studied Mechanical Engineering at the Technical University of Munich from 1968 to 1972. He earned the degree of "Diplom-Ingenieur" and began his career at BMW in 1973 as a Production Planning Engineer. He was promoted to become chairman of the board of BMW from 1993 through 1999. He was also chairman of the Volkswagen AG from 2002 to 2006.
- Wendelin Wiedeking
Dr. Ing. Wendelin Wiedeking (August 28, 1952 in Ahlen, Germany) is (since 1991) member of the executive committee, (since 1992) the executive committee speaker, and (since 1993) the CEO of Porsche AG. In addition he is (since January 28, 2006) member in the supervisory board of Volkswagen and president of Porsche. He is considered by many as one of the most influential people in the automotive industry today.
- Peter Hartz
Peter Hartz, was the human resources executive at the German public company Volkswagen AG (VW). Twenty percent of Volkswagen's shares are owned by the state of Lower Saxony. Hartz gained notoriety as adviser to German chancellor and former head of the state of Lower Saxony Gerhard Schröder, for whom Hartz developed the so called "Hartz-reforms" of the German labour market and job agencies.
- Walter De'Silva
Walter Maria de’Silva is a car designer from Italy, and currently in charge of all Volkswagen Group design. His long automotive career began in 1972 at Centro Stile FIAT, followed by nine years at I.DE.A Institute, before he was recruited by Alfa Romeo. By 1986, he was made in charge of Alfa's Centro Stile, a role he maintained until the late 1990s.
- Bruno Saby
Bruno Saby (b. 23 February 1949) is a rally driver from France. In 1981, Saby became French rally champion in a Renault 5 Turbo. He drove for the works teams of Renault, Peugeot and Lancia during his career in the World Rally Championship. He took two World Rally Championship wins in his career. His first win came driving a Peugeot 205 T16 in the infamous 1986 Tour de Corse, in which Henri Toivonen and his co-driver Sergio Cresto died.
- Jutta Kleinschmidt
Jutta Kleinschmidt (born August 29, 1962) is a competitor of offroad automotive racing events. She is known for her numerous remarkable participations in the Paris Dakar Rally, and also for having won the event in 2001 in a Mitsubishi, becoming the first woman to win the race. She was born in Cologne, Germany. She studied Physics at Isny Polytech then worked at BMW. She raced her first Dakar in 1988 on a BMW motorcycle.
- Heinrich von Pierer
Von Pierer had been long refused to step down as supervisory board chief, even when the current corruption scandal snowballed. He has refused his involvement in any personal wrongdoing. He conveyed the group's annual meeting in January of his 'deep distress' that his efforts to make certain full compliance with corporate government codes had visibly failed.
- Mark Smith
Mark Smith is an auto racing driver, in the 2006 British Touring Car Championship for the In-Front team in an Alfa Romeo 156. Their preparations were hampered pre-season, when a gearbox which was supposed to come ready-to-run was supplied in kit form and not until after the first race weekend. As a result, the team did the first race with an old-fashioned H-pattern box, and skipped round 2 completely. They never scored a top 10 finish, and did not return in 2007.
- Heinrich Nordhoff
Heinrich Nordhoff (January 6 1899 - April 12 1968) was a German engineer famous for his leadership of the Volkswagen company as it was rebuilt after World War II. He is usually referred to as Heinz Nordhoff.
- Ben Pon
Ben Pon (born Bernardus Marinus Pon, 9 December 1936 in Amersfoort, Netherlands) is a vintner and former Olympian and motor racing driver from the Netherlands. He competed in one Formula One race, the 1962 Dutch Grand Prix, but had a far longer career in sports car racing, before turning his back on the track to concentrate on the wine trade. He also represented the Netherlands in clay pigeon shooting at the 1972 Summer Olympics.
- Ivan Hirst
Major Ivan Hirst (March 4, 1916 - March 10, 2000), was a British Army officer who was instrumental in reviving Volkswagen from a single factory in Wolfsburg, Germany to a postwar major automotive manufacturer.
- Alister McRae
Alister McRae (born December 20, 1970 in Lanark) is a Scottish WRC driver. He is the son of 5-time British Rally Champion Jimmy McRae and the younger brother of ex-World Champion Rally driver Colin McRae. Alister McRae took his first foray into motorsport at the age of twelve, when he took up motorcycle trials and motorcross. But it was always rallying where he would demonstrate his true colours. Starting out by competing in Scottish Rally Championship events, …
- Kazunori Yamauchi
Kazunori Yamauchi is the creator of the "Gran Turismo" series and head of Polyphony Digital. He became the president of Polyphony Digital after creating his first game called "Motor Toon Grand Prix", a cartoon racing game that was completely original and had a colorful, unique, and in every sense, "cartoony" feel. Since then, Yamauchi has fulfilled his dream of creating excellent car games with his massively successful "Gran Turismo" series.
- Carl Hahn
Dr. Carl Horst Hahn (born July 1, 1926, in Germany) is chairman emeritus of the automobile company Volkswagen AG. He served as Volkswagen's chief executive officer from 1982 to 1993. During his tenure as chairman of Volkswagen, he expanded the firm's auto production from two million units in 1982 to 3.5 million a decade later.
- Franz von Holzhausen
Franz von Holzhausen is an automobile designer, currently in charge of design at Mazda North American Operations under Moray Callum. He studied design at the Art Center College of Design. After taking his role at Mazda on February 21, 2005, von Holzhausen designed the Mazda Kabura concept car which debuted at the 2006 North American International Auto Show and is tipped for production, possibly as a "MX-4".
- Freeman Thomas
Freeman Thomas is an automobile designer active in the 1990s and 2000s. He worked at Volkswagen's California design studio with J Mays, where he was involved in the design of the Volkswagen New Beetle and Audi TT. He joined Chrysler in 1999 and moved to head DaimlerChrysler's Pacifica Studios in 2002.
- Patrick Le Quément
Patrick le Quément is a French car designer, currently chief designer of Renault. Born in France but bought up in the United Kingdom, Le Quément holds a BA Hons. degree in Product Design from Birmingham Institute of Art and Design, and an MBA from Danbury Park Management Centre. Le Quément joined Simca of France in 1966 after graduation, but left and set up his own design business which failed. He returned to England and Ford in 1968 as a designer, …
- Rudolf Leiding
Rudolf Leiding (born September 4, 1914; died September 3, 2003) was the third postwar chairman of the Volkswagen automobile company, succeeding Kurt Lotz in 1971. Under Leiding's leadership, the Volkswagen Golf was completed and went on sale in Europe in June 1974, introduced in North America as the Rabbit seven months later. The Golf was credited from saving VW from possible bankruptcy after the company had relied on the Beetle too long.
- Brad Jones
Bradley Jones also known as Brad or Uncle Brad (born 2 April 1960) is an Australian racing driver formely competing in the V8 Supercars. Jones was born and grew up in the country town of Albury in New South Wales, where he still lives now. He has a range of experience in domestic and international racing that he puts to use in the V8 Supercar team he owns and runs with his brother Kim.
- Kurt Lotz
Kurt Lotz (born September 18, 1912, died March 9, 2005) was the second postwar CEO of the Volkswagen automobile company in Germany. He succeeded the legendary Heinrich Nordhoff after Nordhoff died in 1968. Lotz was the son of a farmer from the German state of Hesse. During World War II, he became a Luftwaffe general-staff major assigned to assessing needs for the military, which Lotz later looked back on as his first experience with industrial planning on a major scale.
- Daniel Faulkner
Daniel J. Faulkner (December 21, 1955-December 9, 1981) was a police officer in the American city of Philadelphia who was shot and killed in the line of duty. Mumia Abu-Jamal, a journalist, political activist, and member of the Black Panther Party and supporter of MOVE, was arrested and convicted of Faulkner's murder. Abu-Jamal's conviction has since led to a decades-long controversy.
- Sabrina Sabrok
Sabrina Sabrok (born March 4) is an Argentine model and television actress.
- David Elsewhere
David "Elsewhere" Bernal (born August 2, 1979) is a popping dancer from Santa Ana, California. He became known through a viral video clip (Often titled "Kolla2001") of himself dancing to Kraftwerk's song Expo 2000 recorded at the Korean-American talent show Kollaboration in 2001.
- Travis Brown
Travis Brown (born August 7, 1969) is an American professional bicycle racer. He primarily competes in cross-country mountain bike and cyclo-cross races but has also raced on road bicycles from time to time. Brown started racing professionally in 1990 and partially retired at the end of the 2004 season. Brown is still taking part in mountain bike and cyclo-cross races as of 2005, however, he is not entering as many events as he did in the past.
- J. Ralph
Joshua Ralph, better known as J. Ralph, is a musician whose songs are regularly featured in modern commercials. His music can be found in advertisements for Porsche, Nike, Volkswagen and Volvo. Surprisingly enough, J. Ralph is unable to read or write music. His lack of training in music theory may explain the diversity of his songs but this is highly speculative, which make his work as a whole difficult to classify.
- Claus Luthe
Claus Luthe, born 8 December 1932 in Wuppertal, Germany is a celebrated German car designer. As a coachbuilding student he first worked at Karosseriebauer Voll in Würzburg, where he worked on proposals for buses. After a short stay with at Fiat, where he was, among other activities, responsible for the frontal styling of the 500, he returned to Germany to work for NSU, where he was instrumental in developing the company’s design department.
- Ferdinand Anton Ernst Porsche
Ferdinand Anton Ernst Porsche, mainly known as Ferry Porsche, was an Austrian technical automobile designer and automaker-entrepreneur. He operated Porsche AG in Stuttgart, Germany. His father, Ferdinand Porsche Sr was also a renowned automobile engineer. His nephew, Dr. Ferdinand Piëch, was chairman of Volkswagen from 1993 to 2002, and his son, Ferdinand Alexander Porsche, was involved in the design of the 911.
- Karl-Heinz Neumann
Karl-Heinz Neumann is an automobile engineer and manager. He joined Volkswagen in 1965, becoming head of drivetrain development in 1994 before becoming president of Bugatti Automobiles SAS in 2000. He retired from Bugatti in 2003, replaced by Thomas Bscher.
- Franz Xaver Reimspiess
Franz Xaver Reimspiess (born 1900-1979) was an engineer. He was born in Wiener Neustadt in Austria. In 1915 he began his training as an engineering draughtsman with Austro Daimler. At the end of the 1920s, after completing his engineering studies, he designed the Daimler armoured car. Franz Xaver Reimspiess was remarkable for his precise work and his wealth of ideas.
- Tony Hale
Tony Hale (born September 30, 1970) is an American actor, best known for starring in the FOX comedy series "Arrested Development", in which he played the neurotic Byron "Buster" Bluth. He also recently appeared in "Stranger Than Fiction" alongside Will Ferrell.
- Riane Eisler
Dr. Eisler tells us that the current political, economic, and cultural categories are useless for creating conditions that support compassion and sustainability area. Thus, she began to recognize two systems of culture: the partnership system and the domination system. In the domination system, caring is devalued. In the partnership system, caring and compassion are two of the highest values. The real wealth of the nation is the contributions of people and nature.
- Jeff Teague
Jeff Teague is the son of the renowned Industrial Designer, Richard A. Teague. His father was famous for designing notable American Motors Corporation (AMC) cars such as the Gremlin, AMX, and Pacer. Teague graduated from the Art Center College of Design in 1978. He has worked as a designer for a number of automobile firms. He was formerly with Volkswagen of Germany and held the post of Chief Designer for Volkswagen of America.
- Wendy Bagwell
Wendell Lee “Wendy” Bagwell After serving as a United States Marine, Wendy Bagwell formed the Sunliters in 1953. By 1961, the Sunliters consisted of Bagwell, Jan Buckner and Jerri Morrison, a line-up that would remain together for more than 30 years and release more than 40 recordings. Their first major hit was a sentimental song called “Pearl Buttons.” The group is best remembered for their 1970 release Here Come The Rattlesnakes.
- Gillian Wearing
Gillian Wearing (born 1963) is an English artist. Born in Birmingham, Wearing moved to Chelsea, London to study art at the Chelsea School of Art and later went on to Goldsmiths College. She exhibited in the shows which brought the so-called Young British Artists into the public eye, "Brilliant!" (1995) in Minneapolis at the Walker Art Center and "Sensation" (1997) in London.
- Michael Haussman
Michael Haussman is a celebrated American music video, motion pictures and television advertisement director, writer and producer. He currently lives in Rome, Italy. His internationally acclaimed commercials have won numerous awards and are featured in advertising books and trade journals. They include campaigns for Levi's, Adidas, Replay Jeans, Guinness, Dockers, Coca-Cola, Vodafone and Volkswagen. Michael has just finished a major campaign for Martini with George Clooney, …
- Giorgio Armani S.P.A.
Giorgio Armani S.p.A. is an Italian fashion company founded in 1975 by Giorgio Armani and Sergio Galeotti with a starting capital of $10,000 that they got from selling their Volkswagen. The company designs and manufactures products in several categories including fashion accessories, apparel, cosmetics, fragrances, home interiors, jewelry, eyewear and watches under several labels including Giorgio Armani, Armani Collezioni, Emporio Armani, Armani Jeans, Armani Junior, …
- Peter Bialobrzeski
Peter Bialobrzeski (born 1961 in Wolfsburg) is a Photographer and a professor of photography at the University of the Arts Bremen. Peter Bialobrzeski originally studied politics and sociology in Germany before gaining considerable celebrity as a photographer. His photographs have been published in many magazines, and Bialobrzeski has worked for corporate clients such as Daimler-Chrysler, Philip Morris, Siemens, and Volkswagen.