Michael Leiters

Partnership for me means first there have to be synergies. But also secondly, is this in line with our DNA?

— Michael Leiters

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Overview

Dr. Michael Leiters
Born	c. 1971–1972 Germany
Citizenship	Germany
Education	Mechanical engineering
Alma mater	RWTH Aachen University
Occupation(s)	Automotive executive and engineer
Employer	Porsche AG
Known for	Technical leadership at Porsche, Ferrari and McLaren; CEO of Porsche AG
Title	Chief Executive Officer
Term	2026–present
Predecessor	Oliver Blume
Board member of	Porsche AG (Board of Management)
Spouse	Kerstin Leiters
Children	2

🚗 Michael Hugo Leiters (born c. 1971–1972) is a German automotive executive and engineer who has held senior roles at Porsche, Ferrari and McLaren, and who is scheduled to become chief executive officer (CEO) of Porsche AG on 1 January 2026. Known for combining a technical background with senior management responsibilities, he previously served as chief technology officer (CTO) at Ferrari and as CEO of McLaren Automotive before being selected to lead Porsche at a time of strategic transition in the global sports car and luxury SUV market.

🧭 Career overview. Leiters built his reputation inside the European performance-car industry, first in engineering and product roles at Porsche, then by overseeing hybrid supercar programmes at Ferrari and later by managing a corporate restructuring at McLaren Automotive. Over more than two decades he helped to develop SUVs and hybrid models that broadened the reach of established sports-car marques, while also assuming responsibilities for corporate strategy, manufacturing quality and technology partnerships. His appointment to the top post at Porsche has been interpreted as part of a wider trend in which chief technology officers move into CEO roles as carmakers navigate electrification, software integration and changing regulatory requirements.

🌍 Strategic context. When Leiters takes over as CEO, Porsche will be contending with slowing demand in some markets, particularly China, as well as trade uncertainties and a recalibration of its electrification strategy following weaker-than-expected uptake of some battery-electric models. The company’s supervisory board and major shareholders have presented his selection as a response to investor concerns about governance and performance, ending a period in which Oliver Blume simultaneously served as CEO of both Porsche and Volkswagen Group and signalling an expectation that Leiters will stabilise margins while steering a balanced approach to combustion, hybrid and electric products.

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Early life and education

🎓 Education and origins. Michael Hugo Leiters was born in Germany in the early 1970s and studied mechanical engineering at RWTH Aachen University, where he obtained both a diploma and a doctorate, giving him a strong academic grounding in automotive and mechanical systems. His German engineering education would later underpin his work on complex powertrains and vehicle architectures at high-performance manufacturers.

🛠️ Early Porsche career. After completing his studies, Leiters joined Porsche AG in 2000, beginning a career that would initially focus on research, development and product projects before expanding into broader management responsibilities. Between 2003 and 2006 he served as executive assistant to the company’s CEO, a role that exposed him to high-level strategic decision-making during a period of expansion for the brand, and from 2006 to 2010 he managed the development of the first Cayenne Hybrid, Porsche’s initial move into hybridised SUVs. By 2010 he had become director of Porsche’s SUV product line, overseeing both the Cayenne and the then-new Macan compact SUV, which reinforced his experience with volume-driving performance SUVs.

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Career

🏎️ Ferrari tenure. In 2014 Leiters moved to Italy to become chief technology officer at Ferrari, marking a shift from SUV-focused projects at Porsche to the development of high-end supercars. At Ferrari he oversaw the technical programmes for a series of key models, including the SF90 Stradale, the marque’s first plug-in hybrid with close to 1,000 bhp, and the V6 hybrid 296 GTB, both of which aimed to integrate electrified powertrains while preserving the company’s traditional emphasis on performance and driver engagement.

⚙️ Hybrid strategy and departure from Ferrari. During his time in Maranello, Leiters was quoted as saying that Ferrari “doesn’t use any technologies for the sake of it” and that driving emotion was more important than headline performance figures, encapsulating his view that new systems should serve the overall driving experience rather than merely boosting output. Under his technical leadership Ferrari also developed the Purosangue, the brand’s first SUV, drawing on his previous background with Porsche’s Cayenne while attempting to maintain Ferrari’s identity as a sports-car manufacturer. In 2021, following a broader management reshuffle and the appointment of Benedetto Vigna as Ferrari’s new CEO, Leiters left the company, with some industry observers suggesting that his departure may have been linked to expectations that he could have been a candidate for the chief executive role.

🏁 McLaren Automotive appointment. In 2022 the British marque McLaren Automotive appointed Leiters as its CEO, giving him his first chief executive role at a time when the company was recovering from pandemic-related disruption, production stoppages and financial strain. McLaren’s chairman cited his combination of engineering knowledge and business management experience as reasons for his selection, positioning him as the executive to address quality issues, streamline development processes and restore the firm’s profitability.

🔧 Turnaround efforts at McLaren. Shortly after taking office, Leiters confronted problems with the McLaren Artura, a hybrid supercar whose launch had been marred by electrical faults and reliability complaints, and he decided to halt deliveries in order to implement fixes rather than continue shipping flawed cars. He also focused on improving manufacturing discipline at McLaren’s Technology Centre, oversaw the introduction of several new models including the 750S—expected to be the company’s last purely petrol-powered series-production supercar—and authorised development of a flagship hybrid hypercar known by the internal codename “W1”. During his tenure McLaren explored and secured external investment and technology partnerships, culminating in a 2025 merger with electric-vehicle start-up Forseven that aimed to accelerate McLaren’s electrification capabilities and involved a change in group leadership under which Leiters stepped down as CEO.

🌐 Return to Porsche as chief executive. In October 2025 Porsche’s supervisory board announced that Leiters would return to the company as CEO of Porsche AG with effect from 1 January 2026, succeeding Oliver Blume, who had combined the Porsche role with the chief executive position at Volkswagen Group. Media coverage characterised the move as an “ex-Porsche man returns home” narrative, emphasising that he brought back experience from Ferrari and McLaren to a brand where he had previously helped to develop its SUV portfolio. Analysts noted that his background in both sports cars and SUVs aligned with Porsche’s product mix, dominated by the 911 sports car line and the Cayenne and Macan SUVs, and that his work on hybrid systems at Ferrari gave him relevant expertise for Porsche’s evolving electrification plans.

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Wealth and compensation

💶 Executive compensation. As a career corporate executive rather than a company founder, Leiters’ personal net worth has not been publicly disclosed, and specific figures for his remuneration at Ferrari and McLaren have not been detailed in public filings. Industry commentary, however, has suggested that his pay at McLaren would have been broadly comparable with that of other chief executives of niche performance carmakers, while his move to Porsche is expected to place him among the highest-paid automotive leaders in Germany, comparable to the compensation previously earned by his predecessor Oliver Blume across his Volkswagen and Porsche roles.

📊 Wealth structure. Public information indicates that Leiters has typically been compensated through salary, bonuses and, where applicable, stock-based incentives, rather than through founder-level equity stakes, and he has not been reported as a major shareholder in the companies for which he has worked. In his forthcoming role at Porsche he will serve on the company’s board of management and is expected to receive performance-linked share awards intended to align his financial interests with those of investors, although detailed terms of his Porsche package had not been disclosed when his appointment was announced.

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Personal life and management style

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Family and privacy. Sources describing Leiters’ personal life portray him as relatively private compared with some peers in the performance-car sector, noting that he is married to his wife Kerstin and that the couple have two children. Outside of professional contexts he has attracted little tabloid or social-media attention, and publicly available profiles tend to emphasise his career rather than his hobbies or family arrangements.

🧠 Leadership style. Colleagues and journalists have often described Leiters as combining an engineer’s focus on technical detail with an ability to explain complex systems in accessible language, particularly in the context of hybrid powertrains and vehicle dynamics. At Ferrari he frequently framed new technologies in terms of the emotional experience they created for drivers rather than purely in terms of performance metrics, and at McLaren he was reported to have taken a hands-on approach to quality issues by working closely with engineers and production staff on the factory floor.

🚙 Personal interests. While detailed information about Leiters’ leisure activities is limited, interviews and profiles have indicated that he is a driving enthusiast who enjoys SUVs in off-road settings as well as high-performance sports cars on track days, reflecting the range of vehicles he has worked on professionally. Having lived and worked in Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom, he is considered culturally adaptable and multilingual, traits that have supported his leadership roles in internationally staffed organisations.

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Controversies and challenges

⚖️ Ferrari debates over hybridisation. Leiters has not been associated with major personal scandals, but aspects of his work have been the subject of debate among enthusiasts and commentators, particularly during Ferrari’s shift towards hybrid powertrains under his technical leadership. Some traditionalist Ferrari fans expressed concern that increased reliance on hybridised V8 and V6 models would dilute the brand’s V12 heritage, a sentiment discussed on enthusiast forums such as FerrariChat, although the company’s sales and share price remained strong in this period. His departure in 2021 occurred within a broader management reshuffle at Ferrari, and publicly available statements from the company at the time thanked him for his contributions without detailing any disagreements.

📉 McLaren financial headwinds. At McLaren Automotive, Leiters’ tenure coincided with ongoing financial pressures linked to the COVID-19 pandemic, the capital-intensive development of new models and the need for fresh investment, and the company sought additional funding from shareholders and external partners during this period. His decision to delay deliveries of the Artura while reliability issues were addressed was welcomed by some observers as a quality-focused move but also underscored the extent of the engineering challenges facing the business, and the subsequent merger with electric-vehicle start-up Forseven, after which he left the CEO role, highlighted the structural changes required to secure McLaren’s long-term future.

🚧 Challenges at Porsche. When Leiters was appointed Porsche CEO-designate, the company was grappling with slowing growth, particularly in China, increased competition from local manufacturers and changing tariff regimes affecting global trade. Porsche’s share price, which had risen following its 2022 initial public offering, subsequently declined significantly from its peak, and the company was removed from Germany’s DAX blue-chip index in 2025 as its market capitalisation fell. In parallel, Porsche announced adjustments to its electrification roadmap, including delays to certain electric models and a renewed emphasis on combustion-engined products such as the 911, reflecting consumer demand in key markets but also prompting debate about the pace of its transition to zero-emission vehicles.

🔎 Investor expectations and governance. The decision to separate the Porsche and Volkswagen CEO roles and to install Leiters at Porsche was seen by some shareholders as evidence that management had listened to criticisms about corporate governance and strategic focus. Investor representatives nevertheless stressed that leadership change alone would not resolve structural issues, calling for improvements in electric-vehicle development, more resilient China sales and sustained profitability across Porsche’s sports-car and SUV lines. Commentators have suggested that Leiters will have limited time to demonstrate progress on these fronts and that his success will depend on balancing investment in new technologies with the preservation of Porsche’s brand identity and financial discipline.

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Legacy and assessment

🔄 Full-circle trajectory. Commentators have noted that Leiters’ return to Porsche completes a full-circle trajectory in which an engineer who began his career at the company went on to hold senior technical and executive roles at two of Porsche’s closest rivals before coming back as CEO. His path has been cited as an illustration of a broader pattern in which chief technology officers and engineering leaders increasingly move into top corporate roles as automotive firms navigate the transition towards electrification, connectivity and software-defined vehicles. Leadership advisory reports have also pointed to survey data indicating that a substantial share of CTOs aspire to CEO positions, viewing Leiters as one such example of this shift.

⭐ Industry significance. Within the performance and luxury automotive sector, Leiters stands out as one of the few executives to have played significant roles at Porsche, Ferrari and McLaren, three of Europe’s most prominent sports-car marques. Porsche’s supervisory board chair Wolfgang Porsche has described him as having “decades of experience in the automotive industry” and characterised his leadership style and technical expertise as well suited to chairing Porsche’s executive board, signalling the expectations placed on him as he prepares to lead the company through a period of market and technological change.

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