1. Dieter Zetsche was born in Turkey while his father, Herbert Dieter Zetsche, a civil engineer, was temporarily there for a dam construction project.
10 Facts About Dieter Zetsche
1. 2.
Dieter Zetsche attended school in Oberursel and studied electrical engineering from 1971 to 1976 at the University of Karlsruhe; he graduated as an engineer.
3.
Dieter Zetsche completed his doctorate in engineering in 1982 at the University of Paderborn.
4.
Dieter Zetsche joined the research department of Daimler-Benz in 1976, and became assistant development manager at the Vehicles business unit in 1981.
5.
Dieter Zetsche became a member of Daimler Chrysler's board of management in 1998 and was the president and CEO of Chrysler Group from mid-2000 to 31 December 2005, where he was credited with a turnaround of DCX's American operations.
6.
Dieter Zetsche was the main influence behind the demerger of Daimler and Chrysler in 2007, which ended in the newly formed Daimler AG.
7.
Dieter Zetsche is credited with bringing significant core changes to Mercedes-Benz, in an effort to turn around a decade-long downward spiral in product quality and customer satisfaction.
8.
Dieter Zetsche was named in Time magazine's 2006 list of 100 most influential people.
9.
One commercial included Dieter Zetsche riding in a Jeep Liberty while crossing a pile of logs; another showed him in the trunk of a Dodge Caravan minivan, heading a soccer ball; and the last showed him at the wheel of a Chrysler Pacifica during a crash test, then emerging from the wreckage unscathed.
10.
In February 2018, before the announcement of his departure from Daimler, in the annual general meeting held by tourism company TUI AG, Dieter Zetsche was elected as a member of the supervisory board.