Škoda appoints Martina Biene to lead sales and marketing

Škoda Auto is reshuffling its Board of Management from 1 October 2026. Martina Biene, currently Chair and Managing Director of Volkswagen Group Africa, takes over responsibility for sales and marketing at the Czech brand. She replaces Martin Jahn, who moves to Wolfsburg to head sales, marketing and after sales for the Volkswagen brand.

Škoda Auto has announced a change at the top of its commercial organisation. Martina Biene will join the Czech carmaker’s Board of Management as the member responsible for Sales and Marketing, taking over from Martin Jahn. The handover takes effect on 1 October 2026.

Jahn is not leaving the Volkswagen Group. He becomes Member of the Board of Management of the Volkswagen brand in Wolfsburg, with responsibility for Sales, Marketing and After Sales. Škoda adds that, subject to the necessary approvals, he is also set to take a seat on the company’s Supervisory Board.

Who Martina Biene is

Biene has spent her entire career inside the Volkswagen Group, having joined in 2001. Her previous roles include work in strategy and sales of premium vehicles, Area Sales Manager for Belgium and Luxembourg, Head of Product Planning for Germany, Head of Global Product Marketing and Head of the Volkswagen brand in South Africa. In August 2020 she took charge of the Volkswagen Small and Compact Product Line, and since September 2022 she has been Chair and Managing Director of Volkswagen Group Africa.

That mix of product planning, marketing and running a regional business is the background Škoda highlights: the company says her international experience should help strengthen the brand’s footprint outside its core European markets.

Martin Jahn’s two decades in the group

Jahn has been with the Volkswagen Group for 20 years, but his career began in public service. He joined CzechInvest, the Czech government’s foreign investment agency, in 1994 and became its CEO in 2000 after leading the agency’s US operations in Chicago. Between 2004 and 2006 he served as Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs in the Czech Republic.

He first came to Škoda in 2006 as Board Member for Human Resources, then moved to Moscow in 2008 as Managing Director of Volkswagen Group Rus with responsibility for Group sales. In 2010 he took over the group’s international fleet business in Wolfsburg, and from 2016 he worked in China as Executive Vice President for Sales and Marketing and Managing Director of the Volkswagen brand at FAW-VW. He returned to Škoda as Board Member for Sales and Marketing in March 2021.

What the company says

In the statement accompanying the announcement, Škoda credited Jahn with a series of milestones during his time in the role:

“Over the course of his tenure, Martin Jahn has made an outstanding contribution to Škoda Auto’s development and success. Under his leadership, we managed to become the second best-selling brand in Europe, successfully introduced our battery electric models, built an even more customer-centric sales organization with our Škoda typical human touch, introduced a new corporate identity that reflects our ambitions, and increased our brand value.”

The same statement welcomes Biene, describing her approach as pragmatic and customer-focused.

What it means

The sales and marketing seat is one of the most visible jobs at Škoda, covering pricing, dealer networks and how the brand positions itself against rivals. The timing matters: Škoda is in the middle of broadening its electric line-up while trying to grow beyond Europe, and Biene arrives from a job that was entirely about running a market outside the brand’s home region.

For Volkswagen, the move keeps Jahn’s commercial experience inside the group and places it at the core brand, which has been working to rebuild sales momentum in Europe and China.

Both appointments take effect on 1 October 2026.

Source: www.skoda-storyboard.com