Volkswagen Rehires Exec to Head U.S. Sales

Volkswagen of America has lured back Mark Barnes, who left the company in May 2012 to take a job as vice president of sales, marketing and aftersales for General Motors Co.'s international unit.

Barnes, 54, will take over as vice president of sales at VWoA on Feb. 1. He replaces Frank Trivieri, a former head of GM sales in Canada who is leaving VW after presiding over a 7% decline in the company's U.S. sales last year.

Before he left VWoA 20 months ago, Barnes was vice president of customer experience. He also is a past COO of the unit. Before joining VW he held executive sales positions in North America at Chrysler and Hyundai.

The management shuffle is the latest in VW's overhaul of its U.S. operations. The company has now replaced VWoA's CEO and three other top sales and marketing managers. Critics blame VW's problems in the U.S. on a limited product lineup and lack of understanding by the company's German leadership of the American car market.

VWoA has struggled to gain profitability and build the sales momentum needed to achieve its five-year sales goal. The unit has been assigned the goal of achieving annual volume in the U.S. of 800,000 Volkswagen and 200,000 Audi brand vehicles by 2018. Last year the company sold 438,100 VW and 139,300 Audi cars and crossovers in the U.S., according to Autodata Corp.