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Heart and soul: Michael Winkler plans to remain integrally linked with premium marques in Australia, but his next move looks to be heading in a retail, rather than OEM distribution, direction.

THE former head of Jaguar Land Rover and Porsche in Australia, Michael Winkler, has returned Down Under and is now considering his next career move in the local automotive industry after spending the past two years overseeing Bentley’s operations in North and South America.

Flying into Melbourne last week to meet with colleagues before permanently resettling in September, Mr Winkler said in an interview with GoAuto that family reasons had prompted the relocation and that he was looking forward to taking on a fresh challenge in Australia.

Nothing is confirmed at this stage, but Mr Winkler made it clear that the automotive industry and premium marques in particular were still his primary focus, although his next move might not be with a factory or distribution operation.

“It’s an interesting industry down here, and I just need to see what I want to do going forward,” he said. “To be honest with you, I don’t have any plans at this moment in time.

“(Premium brands) – that’s where my heart and soul is. I was with Porsche for a long time but that doesn’t make me single-minded in my love for all things automobile. I’ve owned obscure things like Lancia Fulvias and stuff like that, so my taste is more varied than that!

“We’ll just see what transpires. Obviously, I’ve been here for so long, I’ve got lots of contacts, and everybody’s always doing something new, and new investments taking place and so on, so I’m sure I’ll end up doing something that (means) I can put something back into the industry.”

Mr Winkler said that in terms of continuing to work at the highest level of OEM operations, after having worked in the industry for more than 30 years, “you figure you have paid your dues”.

“Something smaller is probably what I’m looking for,” he said, noting that his move back to Australia reflected this.

“I’m one of those unique individuals – and Americans can’t believe it – that somebody would choose to have a dual citizenship of Australia-Germany rather than having this target of becoming an American at all costs!

“That’s just the way it is.”

Mr Winkler said he had reached an agreement about leaving his position as president and CEO of Bentley Motors Inc – the regional division of Bentley Motors in the Americas, based in Herndon, Virginia – early this year and was therefore surprised by his link with the subsequent chain of events involving senior management changes at Audi in Australia and North America.

As GoAuto has reported, Audi late last year named its UK chief Cian O’Brien as the incoming boss of Audi Australia but in April he was redirected to Audi of America as chief operating officer, replacing Mark Del Rosso who had just been named as Mr Winkler’s successor at Bentley.

“I had an agreement with the Bentley board as early as February, really, and it was an absolute civil discussion about personal goals and the family situation and everything else, so there’s really no more to tell than that,” he said, adding that the timing with personal commitments and handing over to a successor at Bentley worked out well, allowing him to remain in Virginia until June.

Mr Winkler took up the role at Bentley in April 2015, overseeing the British luxury brand’s operations in North and South America – its single biggest market, accounting for about 25 per cent of global deliveries – and its 53 dealers in the region.

He said he took the role because he wanted to “reconnect” with the industry in the US – he spent 12 years with Porsche in North America at the beginning of his career – “and get back in the groove” of what is still one of the biggest, competitive and most influential automotive markets in the world.

Bentley’s sales in the Americas in 2015 totalled 2864 units – down from 3186 in 2014 – and last year slipped again to 2792 vehicles, although the new Bentayga SUV has seen sales return to record form this year with 930 sales to the end of May, compared with 484 for the same period last year.

Mr Winkler said the downturn in sales before Bentayga kicked in was simply due to model lifecycles, with the Continental in particular now reaching the end of its current generation. A fully redesigned model is due to be revealed at the Frankfurt motor show in September.

“Don’t forget the existing product range is in its 13th, 14th year, and in a market that size you are going to have lifecycle effects,” he said. “It’s just as simple as that, and that’s why you develop new products, to be able to compensate for that, and that’s exactly what Bentayga has done.

“For a really small company (like Bentley), lifecycles tend to be a little longer than they are for mass manufacturers. You can’t do an entirely new car every four years and that’s something that certainly we’ll see with the existing Bentley model line,” he said, pointing to Continental GT that was launched at the end of 2003, and significantly updated in 2010.

Prior to joining Bentley, Mr Winkler spent a little over a year as managing director of Jaguar Land Rover Australia and previously served for more than 18 years as head of Porsche Cars Australia.

Before resettling in Australia in September, Mr Winkler said he has a couple of “bucket list” things to do, such as taking his son on a road trip across America in his Porsche Carrera next month and then entering as a privateer in the Pebble Beach Tour d’Elegance in August.

By Terry Martin

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