The IOTA Foundation, an open-source non-profit foundation, has announced that Chief Digital Officer of Volkswagen, Johann Jungwirth, is joining the Foundation’s Supervisory Board.
Jungwirth served as the Chief Digital Officer at Volkswagen since November 2015. He was responsible for driving the digital transformation of Volkswagen Group’s 12 brands which include Porsche, Audi, Bentley, Buggatti, Lamborghini, and more. Prior to Volkswagen, Jungwirth was Director of Mac Systems Engineering at Apple and before that was President and CEO of Mercedez-Benz Research and Development branch of North America.
“We are thrilled to have Johann join our Supervisory Board,” said David Sønstebø, Co-founder of the IOTA Foundation. “Having a visionary like Johann on board is pivotal for IOTA’s ambition to become a global standard that enables real-world use cases.”
Jungwirth is the first C-level executive to join the supervisory board for the next five years. The Supervisory Board is largely independent and meets regularly to approve annual budgets and roadmaps, rules of procedures, and oversees the IOTA Foundation’s Board of Directors. Jungwirth will bring his broad expertise and vision of the future of mobility to the foundation.
IOTA enables machines to securely transact data and money with each other. It said that its technology has already facilitated payments worth billions of dollars to be transacted without fees, and has been utilized for use cases including transparent value chains in logistics, secure Over-the-Air Updates and feeless micropayment-based for electric vehicle charging, parking and more.
“IOTA has the potential to set a standard for trusted machine-to-machine transactions,” said Johann Jungwirth, CDO of the Volkswagen Group. “With its brilliant technology, it’s no question why mobility and technology companies as well as other key players in the industry are joining the Foundation. I’m delighted to join the team and be a part of where IOTA is headed in the future.”
In its official release, IOTA said that its further collaborations with Volkswagen will be announced over the coming weeks.
