Change of management for Porsche companies in Upper Austria

Change of management at the Porsche companies (Porsche Inter Auto, Pia) in Upper Austria on June 1, 2025: The long-time managing director Franz Stöllinger (62) will retire at the end of May. Thomas Herndl, the previous VW brand manager in Austria, follows him.

Henndl is born in Salzburg who lives in the Innviertel. The 43-year-old started his career 20 years ago in market research at the Porsche Holding Salzburg before moving to the Volkswagen brand. From mid-2019 to the end of March 2025 he was VW brand manager. Now the married family man takes over the management of the Porsche Upper Austria network with four locations – Pia Wels, Pia Linz -Leonding, Pia Linz and Pia Asten.

“I’m looking forward to my new task,” says Herndl in an OÖN conversation. “According to the VW brand management, I wanted to go in a different direction within the Porsche holding at my own request, more towards customers.”

Herndl’s time as a VW brand manager was characterized by several crises: “The last normal year was my first year, because in 2020 the Corona pandemic came and then the war in Ukraine.” He is most proud that the VW Golf took over the market leadership in Austria again in 2024, says Herndl. “The market launch of the VW Golf was in 2020 – and almost went down in pandemic.”

As reported in the OÖN, Herndl’s successor as a VW brand manager, Gudrun Zeilinger, born, took over on April 1, 2025.

Franz Stöllinger began his career in the Porsche Holding Salzburg as a car mechanic apprentice in the AutoSport car dealership in Salzburg. This was followed by professional stations in service, as a used car manager and as an assistant to the Porsche management before taking over the management for the Seat brand in Salzburg in 1991. In 1995 he moved from Salzburg to Upper Austria to Porsche Linz-Leonding as managing director. At the end of his 47-year career within the Austrian Porsche Inter Auto-Organization (including 35 years in managing director function), Franz Stöllinger was responsible for the management of the Pia Oberösterreich and the Pia Wels site.

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