Herbert Diess, who was appointed CEO in April, is tasked with leading a restructuring while repairing the company’s reputation.

Herbert Diess has already devoted much of his time to managing the image of the automotive industry giant. A mere two months after joining Volkswagen as brand chief in 2015, the company’s use of illegal software to evade emissions regulations made international headlines. More negative attention followed earlier this year, when Volkswagen’s use of monkeys in diesel fume tests was exposed.

The damage control will likely be a long haul, and the selection of Diess for the top job is telling. Unlike his predecessor, Matthias Müller, Diess is not associated with Volkswagen’s wrongdoings, which continue to taint the company’s image and strain its finances amidst ongoing criminal investigations by German and American authorities. Müller spent his entire career at Volkswagen and its subsidiaries, while Diess worked at BMW for nearly 20 years prior to joining the company.

Volkswagen’s board has given Diess an unusual degree of power as part of its reorganization, especially for a relative newcomer. He will control the company’s budget Skoda and SEAT brands in addition to his existing responsibilities managing the division that manufactures Volkswagen brand cars. Research and development will also fall within Diess’s purview.

Diess will also preside over a big change in direction: Volkswagen has indicated that it will overhaul the company into three new car brands and prepare its truck and bus divisions for possible sale on the stock market. This represents “a major departure after decades of empire building by previous chief executives”, the New York Times noted.

One of Diess’s primary challenges as chief executive will be to change Volkswagen’s insular corporate culture, which is thought to have enabled its misdeeds. (As part of an agreement with U.S. authorities, Volkswagen is being required to establish a whistle-blower system.) “Culture is certainly the most difficult task for Diess”, said Ferdinand Dudenhöffer, a professor at the University of Duisburg-Essen who follows the automotive industry.

Among other things, this will mean contending with powerful unions and local politicians in Lower Saxony. The state government owns 20% of the company and has two representatives on the 20-person supervisory board. Worker representatives hold another 10 seats. But Diess may have the right skills. As VW brand chief, he managed to make a deal with the unions to cut costs and improve profitability.

Shareholders anticipate a new focus on profits under Diess. He previously succeeded in improving profits at the division that makes Volkswagen brand cars, despite a decline in sales. This won favour with the Porsche and Piëch families, who own a majority of voting shares. “He has demonstrated to impressive effect the speed and rigor with which he can implement radical transformation”, said Hans Dieter Pötsch, Chairman of the Volkswagen supervisory board and confidant of the Porsche family.

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