German auto giant Volkswagen hopes to find a new chief executive later this week after Martin Winterkorn resigned in the wake of the massive pollution cheating scandal. 


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Winterkorn, 68, has headed VW since 2007 and steered it to record sales and profits last year, overtaking Toyota as the world leader in terms of sales in the first six months of this year. 


Here is a list of some possible candidates tipped to succeed him:


Sixty-two-year-old Matthias Mueller, currently head of VW`s luxury sportscar maker Porsche, is seen as the main favourite. Born in Chemnitz in former East Germany, Mueller originally trained as a tool maker and then graduated in information technology. Appointed CEO at Porsche in 2010, the white-haired and blue-eyed Mueller enjoys the backing of VW`s family shareholders. He had been tipped to replace Winterkorn during the latter`s bitter feud with his one-time mentor and former supervisory board chief Ferdinand Piech earlier this year.


A new arrival on VW`s board, 56-year-old Herbert Diess was appointed head of the Volkswagen Passenger Car brand in July. The Munich-born mechanical engineering graduate joined rival carmaker BMW in 1996 where he eventually became board member in charge of development in 2012. He has a reputation as a "cost-killer" and is seen as an injection of new blood into the company. 


Rupert Stadler, 52, has often been seen as a possible successor to Winterkorn. He studied business management and joined Audi`s sales and marketing department in 1990 and worked his way up through the company to become its chairman in 2007. 


Born in Traun in Austria, 64-year-old Hans Dieter Poetsch studied industrial engineering in Germany and began his career at BMW. From there he moved to machine tool maker Trumpf and served as chief executive at engineering firm Duerr. He joined VW as finance chief in 2003 and is also seen as a possible candidate to take over as the carmaker`s supervisory board chief. 


Born in Stuttgart, 57-year-old Andreas Renschler initially trained as a banker before graduating in business engineering and business administration. He spent most of his career at rival car maker Daimler before being appointed head of commercial vehicles at VW in February this year. He enjoys good relations with VW`s powerful works committee, but is not yet familiar with all the ins and outs of the company.


Born in Buxtehude in northern Germany in 1961, Juergen Stackmann trained as a bank clerk but graduated in business administration. 


He began his career with Ford in 1989, where he held various posts in Germany and Britain. 


Stackmann joined the Volkswagen group in 2010, initially in charge of sales and marketing at Skoda. He was then appointed head of marketing for the whole Volkswagen group in 2012 before being named head of SEAT in 2013.