Volkswagen settles for 'old boy' Mueller to steer company out of trouble

The resumes of Matthias Mueller, 62, Volkswagen AG's new chief executive officer, and Martin Winterkorn, his predecessor, look remarkably similar. After early positions at Audi, they spent the next 20 years hopping between development roles in the carmaker's 600,000-employee empire.

Winterkorn became Audi chief before graduating to head the whole group, while Mueller made his penultimate stop at the Porsche unit.

The troubled parent company's 20-member supervisory board, 17 of whom are German or Austrian, on Friday named Mueller to replace Winterkorn, who stepped down last week over rigging emission-test results in the United States.