ŠkodaIndia, a fully owned subsidiary of ŠkodaAuto a.s. of Czech Republic (Volkswagen Group), one of the premium automobile manufacturers in India, today announced the appointment of Mr. Karsten Bogun, who will take charge as Managing Director responsible for Sales and all Commercial matters. Mr. Jean-Marie Lagey takes over the function of Managing Director responsible for Production, Logistics and all technical matters.

The new management is in line with Škoda India's growth plans. Mr. Lukas Folc has returned to the Czech Republic after successful completion of his three year tenure at Skoda India. Hailing from Bremen, Germany, Mr. Bogun started his career with Siemens in 1989. During this, he went to China for four years, where he also worked as Finance Director of a Siemens Joint Venture. He went on to head Controlling and Accounting for Siemens business division "Large Drives" from 1998 to 2002. In April 2002 he joined Volkswagen AG as head of Product Cost Controlling for VW passenger cars brand and from there took on the role of Head of Working Capital Controlling in 2004. Born in Brussels in 1954, Mr. Jean-Marie Lagey completed his technical studies from the Technical University of Mons (Belgium). Mr. Lagey started his career with the Volkswagen group in 1980, and ever since has worked in various capacities in the technical, pre-production and production departments. From 1994-2003, Mr. Lagey worked as head of the body-shop department of Škoda Auto a.s. , Czech Republic.

Year 2007 will be another crucial year for Škoda India with the outlined plans of launching much awaited small car 'Fabia' and expanding our dealer network from the existing 48 dealerships across India. Apart from Fabia, there are other important launches in the pipeline for 2007 for the existing product lines.

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About ŠkodaIndia

Škoda has been operating in India since November 2001 as a subsidiary of ŠkodaAuto a. s. Czech Republic (Volkswagen Group), one of the premium automobile manufacturers in Europe. It has set up a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Shendra near Aurangabad, Maharashtra. The facility is spread across 300,000 sq. mt. Škoda India now has Fourteen luxury models in the country: the top end ŠkodaSuperb Petrol, ŠkodaSuperb Turbo Diesel, ŠkodaLaura in Manual & Automatic, ŠkodaOctavia L&K, ŠkodaOctavia RS, ŠkodaOctavia Elegance in 1.9 TDI Manual and Automatic, ŠkodaOctavia Combi in L&K & RS, ŠkodaOctavia Rider in 1.9 TDI, 1.8 Turbo & 1.9 TDI Automatic, ŠkodaOctavia Classic 1.9 TDi. Škoda has a network of 48 dealerships across the country and has sold over 38,000 units since November 2001.