Volkswagen appoints new director of SEAT and CUPRA brands

Daria Zielaskiewicz has become the new director of the SEAT and CUPRA brands. She has replaced Michał Szaniecki in the position, who after 6 years is ending his adventure with the Spanish brands. In December, he began work as Volkswagen brand director in Zetland and Chullora, in Australia.

Zielaskiewicz has been associated with Volkswagen Group Polska for 12 years. In 2009, she began working at Kulczyk Tradex as a fleet sales specialist in the multi-brand Fleet Sales Department. Two years later, she took on the role of Back Office coordinator for Fleet Sales, and then marketing director for the Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles brand. From 2016, she was responsible for marketing and Brand Management at Volkswagen Financial Services. She is a graduate of Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, an MBA programme at the Poznań University of Economics and Business, and the PMD Barcelona management programme at IESE Business School, University of Navarra.

- Returning to the VGP structures and the opportunity to work on the further development of the Spanish brands SEAT and CUPRA are a very valuable and interesting experience for me. The coming years present demanding challenges for the automotive industry. I am certain that our brands are properly prepared for them and I am glad that I will be part of this story – says Daria Zielaskiewicz, the new director of the SEAT and CUPRA brands.

Until November, the position of SEAT & CUPRA brand director and Volkswagen marketing director was held by Michał Szaniecki. After nearly 6 years of working at Volkswagen Group Polska, he is changing continents and for the next 3 years will develop in the position of Volkswagen brand director in Zetland and Chullora, in Australia.

Szaniecki is appreciated by the industry – in 2018, during the Executive Summit, he was recognised as Marketing Director of the Year. He is also a laureate of the Absatzwirtschaft Marken Award, a Board Member of the International Advertising Association, a long-time Juror of Effie Europe and a frequent guest at Polish and international universities.

SEAT is the only company that designs, produces and sells cars in Spain. It belongs to the Volkswagen Group and conducts its international activity from its headquarters located in Martorell (in the province of Barcelona). It exports 80% of the vehicles it produces and operates in 80 countries on all continents. In 2019, SEAT sold a total of 574,100 cars, setting a new sales record.

The SEAT Group employs a total of more than 15,000 specialists at three production centres located in Barcelona, El Prat de Llobregat and Martorell, where the highly successful Ibiza, Arona and Leon models are built. The company produces its other models in the Czech Republic, Germany, Portugal and Slovakia.

SEAT is the largest industrial investor in research and development in Spain. It has its own software centre SEAT:CODE and a technology centre that functions as a knowledge exchange hub bringing together 1,000 engineers. The company's cars can already boast the latest connectivity solutions, and the global digitalisation process implemented by SEAT aims to promote a future based on mobility.

The constant pursuit of innovation translated into the launch in Poland in 2020 of two online platforms making it easier for customers to contact the SEAT brand and to choose and purchase a car. The Virtual Showroom available on the SEAT.pl portal is an interactive showroom offering publicly available live car presentations and private video consultations with an advisor who will present and discuss the selected model. The Sales Online platform available at Sklep.SEAT.pl, in turn, is a complete tool making it easier to find and order a car available in SEAT's Polish dealer network. Sales Online also provides access to an attractive financial offer for consumer leasing, unavailable in the brand's stationary showrooms.