In this function, he will report direct to Christian Klingler, Board Member for Sales and Marketing for the Volkswagen Passenger Cars brand. Chardon is to succeed Alain Favey (Inset, Right), who will be transferring to Salzburg as chief executive officer of Porsche Holding. The previous chief executive officer, Wolf-Dieter Hellmaier, is to retire.

Xavier Chardon started his career in marketing with Citroën Italy in 1994 before joining the Citroën sales team in France a year later. In France, he was the regional manager responsible for Italy and Denmark before becoming price and product manager for Western Europe in 1999. He gained further international experience from 2001 to 2007 as managing director in Denmark and Germany. Subsequently, he became head of marketing and PR in France. He has been managing director of Citroën in France since April 2009.

Alain Favey worked for Citroën from 1989 to 2009. After holding various positions in sales and marketing, he was managing director in Denmark, Belgium, Great Britain, Italy and France in succession. In April 2009, Favey joined the Volkswagen Group as head of Sales Europe of the Volkswagen Passenger Cars Brand.

Wolf-Dieter Hellmaier joined Porsche Austria in 1971. In his 40 years with the Austrian Porsche company, he worked in almost all the departments of the importer. From 1991, he was chief executive officer of the Porsche Inter Auto retail group and was responsible for the development of retail sales in the markets of South-East Europe. In 1993, he was appointed chief executive officer of Porsche Austria.

The market share of Volkswagen Group brands rose to more than 30% in a sustained way. In 1997, he became an Executive Director of Porsche Holding responsible for domestic and export wholesale sales. In 2002, he was appointed chief executive officer of Porsche Holding. Under his leadership, Porsche Holding became Europe's largest and most successful car dealer group.