Zurich (Switz­er­land) — Car dealer Amag is laun­ching the Inno­va­tion & Venture LAB on July 1, 2018. It is sche­du­led to start opera­ti­ons in the second half of the year and will work on topics such as connec­ti­vity, mobi­lity as a service, e‑mobility services and disrup­tive e‑business models. Phil­ipp Wetzel (51), photo (source: obs/Amag) will be Mana­ging Direc­tor and report to Amag Group CEO Morten Hannesbo.

The Inno­va­tion & Venture LAB works on topics such as connec­ti­vity, mobi­lity as a service, e‑mobility services, and disrup­tive e‑business models. It is also available to the entire AMAG Group for agile project processing.

The LAB’s mission includes iden­ti­fy­ing mobi­lity trends and networ­king with leading univer­si­ties and the Swiss start-up scene. It will also address initia­ti­ves of the Volks­wa­gen Group and exch­ange infor­ma­tion with tech­no­logy and inno­va­tion part­ners throug­hout Europe.

In order to ensure market proxi­mity and opti­mal exch­ange with start-ups, acce­le­ra­tors, univer­si­ties and coope­ra­tion part­ners, the LAB will proba­bly be based in the grea­ter Zurich area in a co-working envi­ron­ment. Opera­ti­ons will commence in the second half of 2018.

AMAG Inno­va­tion & Venture LAB is headed by Phil­ipp Wetzel(51) as Mana­ging Direc­tor. In this func­tion, he reports to Morten Hannesbo, CEO AMAG Group AG. A proven marke­ting profes­sio­nal, he holds a degree in engi­nee­ring from the Swiss Fede­ral Insti­tute of Tech­no­logy (ETH) and an MBA, and brings with him many years of expe­ri­ence in consul­ting and the consu­mer goods indus­try. Phil­ipp Wetzel has been with AMAG since 2012, most recently as Direc­tor Marke­ting & Busi­ness Deve­lo­p­ment / CDO Chief Digi­tal Offi­cer and member of the Manage­ment Board of AMAG Import AG. Among other things, he also played a leading role in the deve­lo­p­ment of the Group-wide digi­tal and new mobi­lity stra­tegy, which led to the crea­tion of a new
orga­niza­tio­nal unit and various ventures.

The other key posi­ti­ons in the Inno­va­tion & Venture LAB have been filled by Urs Jaschke as Head of Inno­va­tion Lab, Stefan Rüssli, Head of Venture Opera­ti­ons and Markus Abeler, Head of Finance. Jaschke headed the Digi­tal Busi­ness Deve­lo­p­ment depart­ment at AMAG Import AG, Rüssli has been respon­si­ble for New Mobi­lity at AMAG for around a year, and Abeler joined AMAG a few months ago, brin­ging with him a broad back­ground as CFO in the auto­mo­tive environment.

At AMAG Import AG, Chris­tian Hermle will take over as Head of Marke­ting & Busi­ness Deve­lo­p­ment from Phil­ipp Wetzel as of July 1. In this role, he will report to Bern­hard Solter­mann, Mana­ging Direc­tor, AMAG Import AG.