Annette Winkler

As the first woman to head a Daimler brand,[2] Automotive News Europe described Winkler's 2010 appointment as "a significant victory for women in a male-dominated industry".

[4] Born in Wiesbaden, West Germany in 1959,[5] Winkler completed training as an industrial clerk and thereafter an internship at the Karlsberg brewery in Homburg, Saarland.

[9] 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.

[11] Also, under Winkler's direction, Smart has focused on car sharing and rental programs — namely Daimler AG's Car2Go subsidiary[12] — as well as development and marketing of electric bicycles.

[6] Winkler speaks fluent German, English, Dutch and French[7] and is an avid bicyclist, having cycled many of the prominent mountain passes of the Tour de France.