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Dieter Zetsche Net Worth in 2023 Career & Relationship

Estimated value: €377 million
Age: 69
Born: 05/05/1953
Country of origin: Turkey
Source of Wealth: Manager
Last updated: 2021

Short introduction

Dieter Zetsche, born May 5, 1953 in Istanbul, Turkey, is a German businessman, former CEO of the transnational corporation Daimler AG, Head of Mercedes-Benz Cars (from 2006 to 2019) and Member of the Board of Directors (from December 16, 1998 until May 22, 2019). Since 2010 he has lived in the municipality of Lierna on Lake Como, where he bought a villa.

early life

Dieter Zetsche was born on May 5, 1953 in Istanbul, Turkey. His father Herbert Zetsche, a civil engineer by trade in 1953, was temporarily in Turkey to build a dam. The family returned to Germany in 1956. Dieter Zetsche attended school in Oberursel (near Frankfurt) and studied electrical engineering at the University of Karlsruhe from 1971 to 1976.

He has an engineering degree. In 1976 Dieter switched to the Daimler-Benz group and worked in the research department. In 1981 he became deputy head of development for vehicle construction. Dieter received his doctorate in 1982 from the University of Paderborn.

Career

Zetsche became a member of the Board of Directors of DaimlerChrysler in 1998 and was President of the Chrysler Group from mid-2000 to December 31, 2005. On January 1, 2006, Dieter accepted an offer from DaimlerChrysler CEO Jürgen Schremp to become CEO of DaimlerChrysler (later Daimler AG) and to leave the position of CEO of the Chrysler Group.

On September 26, 2018, Dr. Zetsche announced his resignation, which took place on May 22, 2019, in accordance with Daimler AG’s charter, which establishes the need for executive rotation. After retiring from the post of head of the company, Zetsche took over the honorary post of chairman of the supervisory board. Dieter was included in Time Magazine’s 2006 list of the 100 most influential people of the year.

On June 30, 2006, the Chrysler Group announced the Employee Pricing Plus program, in which Dieter Zetsche as Dr. Z (Doctor Zee), the DaimlerChrysler spokesman has been featured in a series of US and Canadian television commercials.

The “Ask Dr. Z” campaign included media components for television, radio, print, online, distribution and customer relationship marketing, as well as aggressive marketing strategies (mobile billboards, aerial banners, street teams) and targeted the NASCAR fan base. In the “Ask Dr. Z” he gives answers to customer questions and ends them with “Goodbye”.

The advertising campaign highlighted the consumer benefit of the best American and German engineering and design built into every Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge vehicle. It was Zetsche running over a woodpile in a Jeep Liberty, another spot showed him in the trunk of a Dodge Caravan minivan and the last spot showed him behind the wheel of a Chrysler Pacifica – when it was crash tested, he emerged from the wreck unharmed .

In response to declining sales, the Employee Pricing Plus program was extended through the end of August and the August campaign was expanded to include three new TV spots excluding Dr. Z extended. However, after three months, DaimlerChrysler hastily withdrew the Dr. Z campaign due to a significant loss of market share. Some of the dr. However, Z ads can still be seen on Canadian television.

Polls from CNW Marketing Research found that most people say Dr. believed Z to be a made-up character, failed to notice the employee discount offer in the ads, and listeners to radio commercials had difficulty understanding his German accent.

In February 2018, even before the announcement of his departure from Daimler, Zetsche was elected a member of the supervisory board at the annual general meeting of the tourism company TUI AG. This was officially confirmed in May 2019 when Zetsche was appointed as the new Chairman of TUI’s Supervisory Board.

Career highlights

He led extremely effective management of the Chrysler Group and earned the nickname Doctor Zed (Dr. Z or Doctor Zee). The main reason for this was the Employee Pricing Plus incentive system he introduced on July 1, 2006. The nickname Dr. Z was used in the Ask Dr. advertising campaign. ask dr Zed ran in North America, where Dieter Zetsche answered potential buyers’ questions in English but with a heavy German accent.

On May 22, 2019, on the day of Dieter Zetsche’s resignation as head of Daimler AG, the rival automobile group BMW AG published a video about Dieter on its official video channel. The video, which lasts about a minute, shows Zetsche leaving the company office on his last day at work, saying goodbye to the employees, getting into a waiting Mercedes-Benz limousine and driving home. At home, Dieter says goodbye to the driver, enters the house and goes into the garage, from which he drives out in a BMW i8 Roadster. The video ends with the words “Thank you, Dieter Zetsche, for the many years of inspiring competition…”

Famous quotes

As proven by Tesla, there can also be a market on the other side of the range. If that’s a possibility, we’re investigating it.
– Daimler boss Dieter Zetsche

This is an industry where the cycle takes 14 or 21 years to get really strong and relevant.
– Daimler boss Dieter Zetsche

Estimated value: €377 million