August 24, 2021 – Mercedes-Benz is adapting its development organisation to focus on two key topics of the Mercedes-Benz strategy – vehicle software and electrification – with the objective of further enhancing its position as a leading technology company in the automotive luxury segment.
Following his extremely successful work at various companies and most recently at Mercedes-Benz, Sajjad Khan has decided to become an entrepreneur himself. He will leave Mercedes-Benz at his own request on 1 September 2021 in order to set up a technology venture-capital fund. Sajjad Khan is currently a member of the divisional Board of Management of Mercedes-Benz AG. As Chief Technology Officer, he is responsible for development in the areas of connectivity, autonomous, shared & services, and electric (CASE).
Magnus Östberg becomes new Chief Software Officer
Magnus Östberg will assume overall responsibility for the MB.OS vehicle operating system as Chief Software Officer on 1 September 2021. To reflect the far-reaching importance of this newly created position, he will report both to Markus Schäfer, Member of the Board of Management of Daimler AG for Group Research and Chief Operating Officer Mercedes-Benz AG, and directly to the Chairman of the Boards of Management of Daimler AG and Mercedes-Benz AG, Ola Källenius.
Magnus Östberg, born on 27 April 1973 in Sweden, graduated from Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, with a master’s degree in electrical engineering. He started his career in the automotive industry at Mecel, a software and technical consulting company, followed by various management positions at Delphi in Germany and the United States with a focus on vehicle software, infotainment and telematics.
Most recently, Magnus Östberg was Vice President Software Platform & System at automotive supplier Aptiv in the US and responsible for development and launch of the ADAS Satellite Architecture at multiple automotive manufacturers. Magnus Östberg speaks Swedish, English and German.
Sajjad Khan has decisively advanced digitisation at Mercedes-Benz and significantly shaped the product portfolio. With MBUX, he has created a system that defines a new benchmark in the automotive sector. For this, I thank him on behalf of the entire Supervisory Board. I wish Sajjad Khan all the best for his career as an independent entrepreneur. At the same time, I am delighted that Magnus Östberg, a proven software expert with extensive automotive experience and an international profile, is joining the Mercedes-Benz team.
With MB.OS, we made a clear strategic decision for the future of Mercedes-Benz: to apply our own software-platform for our vehicles, for which we are now creating a specific software position to bring together the responsibility for all related development tasks. Magnus Östberg is excellently suited for this job and I am very much looking forward to working with him. Sajjad laid the foundations for MB.OS – with technological expertise, strategic farsightedness and an excellent team. I thank him and the entire CASE organisation on behalf of the whole company. I wish Sajjad all the best with founding his technology venture capital fund and am pleased that we, as Mercedes-Benz, are able to accompany him in this innovative project as an angel investor.
In the context of the electric-only orientation at Mercedes-Benz, research and development activities for the electric offensive will be brought together in the department of Markus Schäfer. All other tasks of the current CASE organisation will be integrated into the corresponding line functions.
