Career
At age 27 and upon her father's retirement,[1] Winkler assumed the sole management of his construction company,[5] A. Winkler Sohn GmbH & Co. KG, a family-owned business since 1824.[1] Sales increased from 4 to 60 million euros under her direction. She was named the 1992 Entrepreneur of the Year by champagne house Veuve Clicquot. Six months after leaving her father's construction company, it was in receivership.[7]
Daimler CEO Dieter Zetsche first met Winkler in 1995 at a convention in Stuttgart, where she stood out as a particularly strong speaker. Though she had no prior automotive or publicity experience,[7] Daimler appointed Winkler that same year[7] to head public relations and communications for Mercedes-Benz (1995–1997).[8]
Winkler went on to head a Mercedes-Benz branch for passenger cars, trucks and After-Sales in Brunswick (1997–1999), where she learned and become licensed to drive heavy trucks in nine days in order to better understand the needs of her customers.[9] She subsequently became CEO of Daimler (then DaimlerChrysler) of Belgium and Luxembourg (1999–2005) and after that the Vice President of Global Business Management & Wholesale Europe, in particular responsible for the worldwide dealer-network of the group (2005–2010).[8] In 2010, succeeding Ulrich Walker, Winkler was appointed CEO of Smart, just as the brand was falling below the critical 100,000 annual sales figure and faced renewed competition with the Audi A1 and Fiat 500.[7]
Winkler oversaw co-development with Renault of the forthcoming third generation Smart Fortwo (C453/W453 build series), indicating the vehicle would retain the rear-engine configuration, overall length as well as its hemispherical steel safety cell, marketed as the Tridion cell.[10]
Also, under Winkler's direction, Smart focused on car sharing and rental programs — namely Daimler AG's Car2Go subsidiary[11] — as well as development and marketing of electric bicycles.
As of 2014, Winkler joined the board of directors at Air Liquide, a French multinational company which supplies industrial gases and services to various industries, and became a Member of the Counsel for Foreign Economic Affairs of the German Ministry for Economics.[12]
In 2018, Winkler resigned from Daimler, succeeded by Katrin Adt. In 2019, Winkler was appointed to Renault's Board of Directors.[13]
