Volkswagen's US CEO Wants to Give Flexibility to Factory and White

The Argentine executive, who's been with the German car maker for nearly a decade in various leadership roles, wants to improve the employee experience at Volkswagen for both white-collar and frontline workers.

Pablo Di Si

Matthew Boyle

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Pablo Di Si played club soccer in his native Argentina before coming to the US at age 17 on a college scholarship. His position: defensive midfielder, or, in his words, "the one who doesn't allow the ball to go through." As CEO and president of Volkswagen Group of America, Di Si, 53, has now shifted to playing offense, leading the company's push to double its share of the electric-vehicle market in the US. He's also looking to boost women in management roles to 30% by 2030 (it's at 26% now), and improve the job experience for factory workers at its non-unionized plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Even as companies increasingly call their workers back to the office, employees want to keep at least some of the flexibility they came to value over the past few years. The balancing act can be particularly tricky for companies like Volkswagen which have a mix of workers who can and cannot do their job remotely — a disparity that led Tesla Inc. chief Elon Musk to call working from home "morally wrong."