Conny Schönhardt

Conny Schönhardt became a member of the Supervisory Board of Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft on 21 June 2019.

Ms Schönhardt was born in Hannover on 24 April 1978. She completed a commercial apprenticeship for office communication at VW Commercial Vehicles from 1994 to 1997. From 2002 to 2006, she studied economics at the Universität für Wirtschaft und Politik in Hamburg (now called Universität Hamburg, department of social economics) and completed a Master of Science in International and European Politics at the University of Edinburgh in 2008.

Before her studies, Ms Schönhardt worked as an assembly worker at VW Commercial Vehicles from 1997 to 2002. Simultaneously, from 1996 to 2002, she was a representative for young employees and apprentices, for two years of which she was Deputy Chair. From 2008 to 2014 she was a trade union secretary for IG Metall Area Management for Lower Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt. From 2014 to 2018, she worked for the IG Metall Board of Management as a secretary in the unit responsible for pay scale policy.

In November 2017 Schönhardt completed her qualification as Labour Organiser at REFA (Association for work design, company organization and corporate development).

Since January 2019, she has been a trade union secretary for the IG Metall Board of Management in the unit for Strategic and Political Planning, and also company representative for Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft and AUDI AG.

Conny Schönhardt has specialist knowledge of the automotive industry thanks to her work at Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles and her role as a company representative. Furthermore, she has extensive knowledge and experience in the areas of finance and accounting, law and compliance, and employee matters. In addition, she is particularly experienced in interacting and working with government and authorities, industry associations, and trade unions.