VW brand hires Google executive to lead marketing

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BERLIN — Passenger car brand Volkswagen has appointed Nelly Kennedy as its chief marketing officer.

Kennedy is currently senior director of global marketing for the Google brand in California, which she joined in April 2015. She will join VW in mid-February, succeeding Jochen Sengpiehl, who joined Volkswagen China.

Kennedy will be responsible for transforming the automaker “into a truly popular brand,” VW brand boss Thomas Schaefer said in a statement.

VW brand sales and marketing manager Imelda Labbe said Kennedy’s expertise would make a “decisive contribution” to giving VW a clear brand profile across all regions and restoring the brand’s ” true mark of love”.

Prior to joining Google, Kennedy served as Chief Digital Officer of Conde Nast International from 2013 to 2015.

She also held several leadership positions in global marketing with sportswear brand Adidas, where she spent more than a decade, starting as global lifestyle PR manager and ending as Global Vice President, Digital and Relationship Marketing.

Before entering the business world, Kennedy studied public relations at the University of Vienna. She also holds a postgraduate degree in international marketing from the University of California, Berkeley.

Kennedy’s appointment is part of a wider reorganization in August of VW Group management under the automaker’s new CEO, Oliver Blume.

Blume said the changes will give the group’s brands more commercial responsibility.

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