In quieter times among the higher echelons of British Cycling, the first press conference by its new chair, Jonathan Browning, might have ventured into the implications of his appointment for the organisation’s 125,000 members, many of whom give up considerable amounts of time, money and energy to make things happen at the grassroots end of the sport. However, the times are anything but normal and Browning was placed immediately on the defensive over his time as chief executive of Volkswagen in the US and the scandal over rigged diesel engine emissions.

He was adamant: “I have had no involvement in the emissions scandal in my time at VW whatsoever. I joined in June 2010 after the engines that are part of the emissions scandal were developed and launched in the market. I left in December 2013 before any of the data emerged on those diesel engine issues.”

Details of VW’s rigging of emissions emerged almost two years after Browning’s unexpected departure from the company for “personal reasons”. The episode led to a recall of almost half a million VW vehicles in the US, a class action suit by 10,000 VW owners in the UK, and a $15bn settlement with US drivers.

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The 56-year-old has also had stints at Jaguar and General Motors, although, the Guardian has been told, he is a lifelong cyclist who raced as a schoolboy. He was appointed as a British Cycling non-executive director in April 2015; his CV on the governing body’s website lauds his “wide-ranging experience of delivering significant revenue growth as well as his ability to lead on large-scale marketing strategies.”

It is 20 years since British Cycling emerged from the disastrous conflict of the mid-1990s under the tutelage of Brian Cookson, now the head of the world governing body the UCI, and Peter King. Expansion has been rapid – 50,000 have joined up in the past three and a half years – but amid booming participation and medal hauls, the limitations of the governing body have been exposed by events in the past 10 months.

Since the sprinter Jess Varnish was thrown off the team in April last year, one scandal has followed another, beginning with the departure of the head coach Shane Sutton at the end of April and culminating in the appearance of Sutton, the former performance director, Sir Dave Brailsford and the president, Bob Howden, in front of a parliamentary select committee in December, primarily to answer questions over what is now known as “Jiffy bag-gate”.

None of the trio made a strong impression and Howden was unable to rebut the charge the episode had been “a disaster” for British Cycling. In normal times his relinquishing the role of chair and retaining the more formal job of president would not have invited comment, given the obvious increase in workload and responsibilities; in the current context, the question of whether his select committee appearance had affected his decision raised its head, although he was adamant it had had “no influence whatsoever”.

That context includes yawning gaps at the top: the appointment of a chief executive officer to replace Ian Drake – who left in December, before the end of his term, for reasons that have yet to be fully explained – is expected in the next couple of weeks, but the appointee is unlikely to be in post before the summer. There has been no performance director since April 2014 and the Olympic team have been headless since Sutton left, with the new PD, Stephen Park, not expected to arrive until April.

Meanwhile, there are two imminent inquiries: the joint investigation with UK Sport into the culture within the Olympic team has apparently needed heavy redactionin order to avoid libel suits and has been discussed in three board meetings since the emergence of a first draft in early December. Further details of the UK Anti-Doping inquiry into the circumstances around the delivery of a Jiffy bag said to contain the decongestant fluimicil to Team Sky in 2011 should emerge when the Ukad chief executive, Nicole Sapstead, gives evidence to the parliamentary committee for culture, media and sport on 22 February.

With the governing body’s own governance at centre stage for so long, and to such a damaging extent, it is hardly surprising Browning’s record at VW should face scrutiny. The second question he was asked was whether he would be more vigilant and knowledgeable about British Cycling than he had been at VW. It barely needed an answer, but he replied, “It is absolutely our intention to have the right levels of governance and transparency which will allow us to meet our ambition of being a world-class governing body.” There is a well-known saying about rearranging chairs; who knows what icebergs are looming in the murk?