Piëch resigns as President Commissioner Volkswagen – Financieele Dagblad (Registration)

Ferdinand Piëch

HH

Er has finally come to an end the era Ferdinand Piëch at Volkswagen. After 22 years have stood at the head of the Volkswagen Group, first as CEO and then as President of the Board, has Piëch Saturday resigned. He does this together with his wife Ursula, who like him was to date in the supervisory board. Union leader Berthold Huber temporarily assume the functions of Piëch over as Chairman.

The departure of Piëch from VW is the top result of a wild brawl that erupted two eeks ago between him and chairman Martin Winterkorn. It started with an interview in Der Spiegel that Piëch clearly did not have more confidence in Winterkorn. Then all hell broke loose. Piëch did not take into account that other supervisors in the supervisory board would turn against him. Among them very important as his cousin Wolfgang Porsche, Prime Minister Stephen Weil of Lower Saxony, former chairman Berthold Huber from IG Metall and the chairman of the works council Bernd Osterloh

Under pressure

They put during a crisis meeting in Salzburg Piëch heavy pressure. The message to Piëch was clear: “If you want to stay, you may Winterkorn not openly

attack

seemed Winterkorn and Piëch. then indeed willing to kind of peaceful coexistence. But last Thursday seeped again messages in the media that Piëch wanted to leave for the shareholders’ meeting of May 5 Winterkorn replaced by Matthias Müller, the current boss of VW subsidiary Porsche

Om achieve that he needed a majority in the 20-member supervisory board, but that he apparently did not succeed, witnesses are leaving today.

Majority shareholder

Completely off Piëch’s Winterkorn still lacks. Piëch is one just like his cousin Wolfgang Porsche to the major shareholders in Volkswagen AG. Together the families Porsche and Piëch have a majority in the Porsche Holding, and this in turn keeps more than 50% of the shares in Volkswagen.

Ferdinand Piëch and Wolfgang Porsche are both descendants of auto pioneer Ferdinand Porsche, the man who started just before the Second World War with the building of the Volkswagen group. Besides Volkswagen Piëch also headed the Audi brand, where he designed the Audi Quattro. He is regarded as a brilliant engineer with disabilities: he has dyslexia load

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