Toni Schmucker
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Toni Schmücker was the fourth chief executive officer of the Volkswagen automobile company following the handover of the company in 1948 to German control from the British, who had administered the VW factory in Wolfsburg, Germany after the Second World War ended.
Schmücker became the head of Volkswagen in 1975, succeeding Rudolf Leiding. At the time of Schmücker's assumption of the job, Volkswagen had just staved off bankruptcy with the introduction of the Volkswagen Golf (marketed as the Rabbit in North America and as the Caribe in Latin America), which would eventually replace the Volkswagen Beetle. In September 1976, Schmücker made history by securing a deal to build a Rabbit factory in New Stanton, Pennsylvania, making VW the first non-American car company to build its products in the United States. It was an effort to make the Rabbit less expensive to sell in North America at a time when the German mark was gaining in value against the U.S. dollar. The factory opened on April 10, 1978.
Under Schmücker, however, VW lost ground to the Japanese automakers, generally around the world but particularly in North America. After suffering a heart attack in 1981, he was forced to resign the following year and was succeeded by Dr. Carl Hahn.
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