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Bentley CEO Winkler To Step Down

Huge news coming out of the auto industry, Michael Winkler, Bentley Motors Inc. CEO, is set to leave his role as of June 1st, of this year. This move will orchestrate a massive shuffle at Audi of America when it comes to the company’s executive team.

Who will replace Winkler? Apparently Mark Del Rosso, Audi of America’s COO. The CEO position leads all of Bentley’s operations in both North and South America, including the 53 dealers in this area – and Del Rosso seems fit for the job.

Del Rosso, aged 52, commented on his new appointment, stating that to him, Bentley is the very essence of luxury and a brilliant brand. He goes on to note that the company has a bright future and he is quite delighted to be a part of this team.

As an auto industry veteran of 25 years, Del Rosso stepped into his COO role at Audi of America in 2008. According to Audi, in his nine years on the job he has helped increase new-car sales significantly, by 140%. Before Audi, Del Rosso was working sales and marketing at Toyota, in the Lexus division. Mark attended and graduated at the University of South California.

In other Audi news, as reported by Auto News; Cian O’Brien will fill in for Del Rosso in the executive vice president and COO role. At the age of 39, he has led sales operations in the past for Audi UK; the company’s second largest worldwide market, next to the U.S. O’Brien has also worked as the interim director for Audi UK since September of last year. In the past, O’Brien worked with Volkswagen, for about 22 years, where he started out in a dealership as a salesman in college. As a native of Cork, Ireland, he has three children, and loves playing rugby. O’Brien enters this new role on May 1st of this year.

Bentley has yet to comment on why Winkler has stepped down from the role he has been in since April of 2015. Winkler, age 54, worked for Jaguar Land Rover and Porsche in the past.

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