Matthias Mueller, Martin Sorrell and Jack Dorsey's 2015 statements: The year in business quotes

Michael Horn on messing up

In my German words, we have totally screwed up

The US Volkswagen boss was obviously referring to the huge scandal at the German carmaker. The emission scandal will cost the manufacturer billions and has cost it a third of its share price. New CEO Matthias Mueller, who replaced Martin Winterkorn, later said: "My most urgent task is to win back trust for the Volkswagen Group."

Sajid Javid on the steel crisis

There is no magic bullet

The plummeting steel prices caused thousands of UK workers to lose their jobs. Plants across the country were shut down and mothballed. From Tata Steel to SSI UK, many steel companies operating in the UK called on the government to take action. Business secretary Javid was asked to bring forward the issues in Brussels to get EU actions, but it was clear this was a longer, ongoing crisis. "We can't change the price of steel, but we can forensically work through all of the challenges we know the industry is facing to see what solutions there might be," he said in the House of Commons.

Tom Hayes on fixing the Libor rate

I acted with complete transparency

Hayes was given a 14-year-long prison sentencefor rigging the London Interbank Borrowing (Libor) rate before the 2008 financial crash. The former derivatives trader, who was diagnosed with Aspergers, told the court that everything he did, his bosses were aware of.

"My managers knew, my manager's manager knew," Hayes told Southwark Crown Court. "In some cases the CEO was aware of it. I wanted to do my job as perfectly as I could."

Martin Sorrell on emerging markets

I remain an unabashed bull on China

The stock market bubble in China started to burst on 24 August 2015, or Black Monday, and the Shanghai Composite plummetted hard, but the WPP chief remained positive. The stock market climbed back up slightly, but erased the vast majority of gains made in 2015. The manufacturing slowdown in China, which some say is part of the country's shift towards a more services-based economy, has harmed the price of commodities as well, which in turn hurt exporting countries such as Brazil.

It is now estimated that the Chinese economy is growing by less than 5%, a lot lower than the 6.7% claimed by the government, which already shocked investors. Sorrell said, however, that the slowdown was inevitable, and China is still booming looking at long term outlooks.

Jack Dorsey on cutting jobs

This isn't easy. But it is right

In an email to its employees, Twitter founder Dorsey, who had just been reassigned as permanent CEO, announced the firm was cutting 336 jobs. "The world needs a strong Twitter, and this is another step to get there," he told Twitter workers.

Yanis Varoufakis on quitting

I shall wear the creditors' loathing with pride.

Former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis quit his role in July, following the referendum on a bailout deal. The Greek people voted in favour of accepting the deal from the country's creditors. Varoufakis had played thug of war with the IMF, the Eurogroup and the European Central Bank in an effort to save Greece from going bust.

"We of the Left know how to act collectively with no care for the privileges of office," he said in a blogpost announcing his resignation. "I consider it my duty to help Alexis Tsipras exploit, as he sees fit, the capital that the Greek people granted us through yesterday's referendum."

George Osborne on the bank levy

It's worked

In the first budget statement since the majority Conservative government after the 2015 General Election, chancellor George Osborne announced he would gradually reduce the levy. Introduced after the financial crisis to raise banks' revenue and increase stability, Osborne said the levy did its job but said "now it risks doing harm unless we change it". In place of the levy, Osborne announced a new 8% surcharge on bank profits from 1 January 2016.

Jonah Peretti on new media

News drives repeat visits, it drives usage

Peretti is leading Buzzfeed to be one of the biggest websites in the world, at a time that online media is undergoing a revolution. This included Business Insider being taken over by German publisher Axel Springer and CNBCUniversal investing $200m (£132m) in BuzzFeed. "You always want to know what's going on and what's the latest, and so it's a way of creating habits," Peretti told the Guardian.

Tim Martin on the living wage

The government is inevitably putting financial pressure on pubs

The new living wage introduced by Osborne in July, will up the cost of wages, putting extra pressure on the balance sheet of pubs and pub chains, "many of which have already closed", JD Wetherspoon chairman Tim Martin said. Martin has spoken out about the government's economic policies repeatedly in the past.