Rupert Stadler (born 17 March 1963) is a German businessman and former chairman of the

Vorstand In German corporate governance, a ''Vorstand'' is the executive board of a corporation (public limited company). It is hierarchically subordinate to the supervisory board (''Aufsichtsrat''), as German company law imposes a two-tier board of d ...

(CEO) of

Audi AG Audi AG () is a German automotive manufacturer of luxury vehicles headquartered in Ingolstadt, Bavaria, Germany. A subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group, Audi produces vehicles in nine production facilities worldwide. The origins of the company ...

. He was arrested in June 2018 in connection with the

Volkswagen emissions scandal The Volkswagen emissions scandal, sometimes known as Dieselgate or Emissionsgate, began in September 2015, when the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a notice of violation of the Clean Air Act to German automaker Vol ...

. He was in custody in Germany until being released at the end of October 2018. In July 2019, Stadler was charged with fraud by prosecutors in

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

Early life

Stadler was born in Wachenzell in the Eichstätt district of

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

, Germany. He studied business management at

Augsburg University of Applied Sciences Technical University of Applied Sciences Augsburg ( or simply ''THA'') is a public university located in Augsburg, Germany. It was founded in 1971, but its institutional roots as an academy of arts date back to 1670. With more than 7,000 stude ...

, majoring in corporate planning/controllership and finance, banking and investment.

Career

After graduating, he started his career at Philips Kommunikation Industrie AG in Nuremberg. Stadler joined Audi AG in 1990, assuming roles in sales and marketing. He became Commercial Director of Volkswagen/Audi España SA in 1994. From 1997 on, Stadler ran the office of the board of management of the Volkswagen Group. In January 2002, Stadler also became Head of Group Product Planning. He served as acting chairman of the board of Audi AG and its head of finance and organization until July 2007. He also served as the chairman of Automobili Lamborghini Holding SpA and Volkswagen Group Italia SpA. Stadler served as vice-chairman of the supervisory board at German football club FC Bayern AG until December 2018, when he was replaced by

Volkswagen Volkswagen (VW; )English: , . is a German automotive industry, automobile manufacturer based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. Established in 1937 by German Labour Front, The German Labour Front, it was revitalized into the global brand it ...

CEO Herbert Diess. Stadler has been the chairman of the board and chief executive officer (CEO) of Audi AG since 1 January 2010, and served as its chief financial officer (CFO) since 12 January 2007. Stadler has been a member of the supervisory board at MAN SE (alternate name Man AG) since 10 May 2007 and served as a Member of the supervisory board of Volkswagen Bank GmbH, and Volkswagen Financial Services AG. He has served as a member of the economic advisory council of Bayerische Landesbank since 1 December 2005.

Dieselgate and arrest

Ever since Volkswagen admitted to use cheating software in November 2015, Stadler was under fire. In June 2018, Munich prosecutors named Stadler as a suspect in the widening Dieselgate scandal. A week later, Stadler was arrested and held in a prison in Augsburg. Prosecutors claimed he was tampering with evidence because of a phone call in which he suggested putting a witness on leave. Volkswagen initially suspended Stadler as CEO after the arrest, and on 2 October 2018, the company terminated all contracts with Stadler. Four weeks later, Stadler was released from custody against bail and under other conditions. Prosecutors continued naming him as a suspect.

Trial

On 30 September 2020, Stadler begun to stand trial in a

court on charges of fraud, and knowingly selling cars that did not comply with environmental standards. After years of insisting at the trial that he did nothing wrong, Stadler accepted a

plea deal A plea bargain, also known as a plea agreement or plea deal, is a legal arrangement in criminal law where the defendant agrees to plead guilty or no contest to a charge in exchange for concessions from the prosecutor. These concessions can include ...

offered by the judge on 3 May 2023 and pleaded guilty on 16 May 2023, becoming the highest-ranking executive to confess wrongdoing to date. He received a

suspended sentence A suspended sentence is a sentence on conviction for a criminal offence, the serving of which the court orders to be deferred in order to allow the defendant to perform a period of probation. If the defendant does not break the law during that ...

and a €1.1 million ($1.21 million) fine.

Personal life

Stadler lives in

Ingolstadt Ingolstadt (; Austro-Bavarian language, Austro-Bavarian: ) is an Independent city#Germany, independent city on the Danube, in Upper Bavaria, with 142,308 inhabitants (as of 31 December 2023). Around half a million people live in the metropolitan ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stadler, Rupert 1963 births Living people Chief executives in the automobile industry Audi people FC Bayern Munich board members Chief financial officers