Dr. Roland Villinger was born in Munich in 1965. In his hometown, he first studied business management and organizational psychology at Ludwig Maximilians University. After that, he studied at the University of Cambridge in England, where he gained his master’s degree in finance in 1991.
In that year, he started his career at the management consulting firm McKinsey in Munich and Vienna. While working, he gained his doctorate in Cambridge in the field of international management and M&A.
From 1998 until 2014, Dr. Roland Villinger worked for McKinsey at various locations in Asia, as well as at the company’s Silicon Valley Accelerator in 2001. During his time in Asia, he held a number of senior positions for McKinsey. For example, he developed the business in Thailand and Indochina, was responsible for the firm´s operations practice in the Asia-Pacific region, and was most recently country head in South Korea. He returned to McKinsey in Germany in 2014.
Dr. Roland Villinger was elected as a partner at McKinsey in 1999 and as a senior partner in 2005. For several years, he was a member of Mc Kinsey’s global risk management committee and of global partner election and assessment committees.
After 25 years at McKinsey, Dr. Roland Villinger has now become Chief Strategy Officer (CSO) and Chief Digital Officer (CDO) at AUDI AG since October 1, 2016. In this position, he manages the company’s internal digitization initiatives and is also in charge of corporate strategy.
Dr. Roland Villinger is married and has two children.
