He attended school in Oberursel (near Frankfurt am Main) and studied electrical engineering from 1971 to 1976 at the University of Karlsruhe; he graduated as an engineer. Afterwards, he joined Daimler-Benz, working in the research department. In 1981, he became Assistant Development Manager at the Vehicles business unit. He completed his doctorate in 1982 at the Technical University of Paderborn.
He was the main influence behind the merger between Chrysler and Mercedes-Benz to form DaimlerChrysler.
Zetsche was named to ''Time Magazine'''s 2006's list of 100 most influential people.
In July 2006, he became the DaimlerChrysler spokesperson for a series of United States television commercials. In the "Ask Dr. Z" ad campaign he humorously provides answers to customers' questions and exits with an "Auf Wiedersehen" (German for "See you later"), all in a thick German accent.Clark, Andrew. "Svengali-like Dr Z - the unlikely star of Daimler's TV ad campaign in US. " ''The Guardian.'' Accessed on 11 August, 2006.
Notes
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External links
*Ask Dr.Z.com*Dieter Zetsche page on DaimlerChrysler's homepage
*Archived online ad for DaimlerChrysler's 'Ask Dr. Z' in the adverlicio.us online auto ad archive
Biography courtesy of the brilliant Wikipedia!
