NAME: Diego Ramos
BORN: Le Creusot, France
AGE: 49
TITLE: Executive vice-president
COMPANY: Audi Canada
EDUCATION: Degree in mechanical engineering from EUITI-Barcelona; first- and second-year economics, University of Barcelona
PERSONAL: Married, three children, hobbies include motorcycle riding and restoration, speaks five languages (English, French, Spanish, German, Portuguese)
FIRST CAR: 1979 Renault 12
CURRENTLY DRIVES: 2008 Audi A8L
FAVOURITE QUOTATION: “The example is the most beautiful way of leadership.”

Question: Do you consider your-self a “car guy”?
Diego Ramos: The most politically correct answer would be to say yes, but I will say no. I’m more of a motorcycle guy (although) they are very similar.
When I talk about motorcycles, I talk with passion. The older we get, the more passionate we become. And the older I get, the more I like old motor-cycles. The car industry is more com-plex. The car has more influence than
the motorcycle from a socio-economic point of view, from a fashion point of view and from a safety point of view. (With motorcycles), I can explore my passion and have my job as my hobby.

Question: How is Audi Canada doing in the marketplace?
DR: We are up 11 per cent (in sales) year over year. That said, we are run-ning out of our bread-and-butter model, the A4. We were so successful in the first four months with this year that we are now short of cars. That’s the (way it is) in our industry; either you have too many cars or too few. We could sell more, but we are short of cars. With people changing the way they think about small cars, the A3 has been very successful and, again, we are running short. So, our sales could be higher, but we will recover in the second half othe year when we get the new A4. You know what happens every time you get a new model — for the first five months, sales are bang, bang, bang.

Question: Given the current state of the automotive business, what do you think Audi will look like in 10 years?
DR: I don’t think it will be very much different. We are not a company that wants to be No. 1 in volume. We want to be the best company in the world with the most satisfied customers and the most loyal customers.