Dr. Peter Mertens was born on March 30, 1961, in Bielefeld, Germany.
After completing his studies of Production Engineering at the Ostwestfalen-Lippe University of Applied Sciences, he earned a Master of Science degree in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research from Virginia Polytechnic Institute in the United States in 1985.
From 1985 to 1990 Peter Mertens headed the Technology Transfer department at the University of Kaiserslautern and received his Dr.-Ing. (Doctor of Engineering) degree.
In 1990 Mertens started his career in the automotive industry. He held multiple management positions with Mercedes-Benz AG, prior to taking over management of Tegaron Telematics GmbH, a joint venture of Daimler Chrysler Services AG and Deutsche Telekom AG, in 1996.
In 2002 he joined Adam Opel AG, first as Executive Director for midsize and large product lines. In 2004 he became responsible for the compact product lines of General Motors Europe and, starting in 2005, for all compact product lines of General Motors worldwide.
In 2010 Peter Mertens joined the Management Board of Jaguar Land Rover and headed Corporate Quality for the entire Tata Motors Group, including the Jaguar Land Rover brand.
From March 2011, Mertens assumed responsibility for research and development as Senior Vice President, Research and Development for the Volvo Car Group.
Since May 2017, Dr. Peter Mertens has been a Member of the Board of Management of AUDI AG with responsibility for Technical Development of the brand with the four rings.