Matthias Muller was appointed as the CEO of Volkswagen AG, following a decision by the supervisory board during the meeting in Wolfsburg on Friday, 25 September.

Muller is currently the chairman of Porsche AG in Stuttgart. He will continue in this post until a successor is found.

The 62-year-old German received backing from majority of the board members, Reuters reported. The immediate task before Muller is to steer Volkswagen through the biggest business crisis it has experienced in its 78-year-long history.

Muller succeeds Martin Winterkorn, who offered his resignation on Wednesday, 23 September, owing to the emission scandal in the USA.

The world's biggest car-maker by sales has admitted to the US regulators that it programmed its cars to detect when they were being tested and alter the running of their diesel engines to conceal their true emissions.

"My most urgent task is to win back trust for the Volkswagen Group – by leaving no stone unturned and with maximum transparency, as well as drawing the right conclusions from the current situation," Muller said in a statement.

"Under my leadership, Volkswagen will do everything it can to develop and implement the most stringent compliance and governance standards in our industry," he added, "If we manage to achieve that then the Volkswagen Group with its innovative strength, its strong brands and above all its competent and highly motivated team has the opportunity to emerge from this crisis stronger than before."

Muller was born in Chemnitz, East Germany, and did an apprenticeship as a tool-maker with Audi AG after schooling. After obtaining his master's degree, he resumed his career with Audi AG in Ingolstadt in 1978. Later in 1984, he became the head of the systems analysis division and assumed charge as the head of the project management for Audi A3 in 1993. He was also responsible for product management at Audi AG, SEAT and Lamborghini in 1995.

Muller moved to Wolfsburg as Volkswagen group's head of product management in 2007. He was the chairman of the executive board of Porsche AG since 2010.

Muller was appointed as a member of the board of management of Volkswagen AG from 1 March 2015.

His current contract as a board member of Volkswagen AG will continue apart from being the CEO of the company and this contract runs till February 2020.

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