Ferdinand Piëch

Ferdinand Karl Piëch ( born April 17, 1937 in Vienna) is an Austrian manager, major shareholder of Porsche Automobil Holding SE, since 2002 Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Volkswagen AG since 2007 and MAN SE.

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Life

Early years

Ferdinand Piëch is the third child of Viennese lawyer Anton Piëch and his wife Louise, daughter of Ferdinand Porsche. His older brother Ernst Piëch ( born 1929 ) is son of the first VW General Director Heinrich Nordhoff. The sister Louise Piëch Daxer- (1932-2006) was in the management of the Austrian VW / Porsche importer General (now Porsche Holding) in Salzburg active. The younger brother Hans Michel Piëch - ( * 1942 ) is a lawyer in Vienna.

From 1952 to 1958 Ferdinand Piëch visited the Swiss boarding school Lyceum Alpinum Zuoz in St. Moritz. After studying mechanical engineering at the ETH Zurich - in his thesis he dealt with the development of a Formula 1 engine - he began his career in 1963 under his uncle Ferry Porsche at Dr. Ing hc F. Porsche KG in Stuttgart- Zuffenhausen. He was head of the development department in 1965 and 1971 " Technical Director ".

Early 1972 had to because of a family decision all family members from the management retreat at Porsche. Piëch then founded in Stuttgart own design office, where he developed the five-cylinder diesel engine OM 617 developed for Daimler -Benz, the Mercedes 240 D 3.0 ( W 115 ) was published in 1974.

In August 1972, Piëch was at the VW subsidiary Audi NSU Auto Union AG in Ingolstadt plant main responsibility for special tasks in the technical development and was from 1975 Member of the Board of Technology. On his initiative, Audi NSU In 1976, the first passenger car with five-cylinder petrol engine (Audi 100 5E) on the market. Appointed on 1 September 1983 as Deputy Audi NSU chairman, Ferdinand Piech took over on 1 January 1988 the post of Chairman of the 1985 trade under the name Audi AG company, where he was instrumental created a new brand image. Ultimate Audi innovations at that time were, among others, the permanent " quattro " all-wheel drive (1980 ) and the TDI engine with direct diesel injection (1989).

Time at Volkswagen

On 1 January 1993, Ferdinand Piëch was the successor of Carl Hahn CEO of Volkswagen AG, which was deep in the red zone at the time.

Piëch took 1993 José Ignacio López and seven of its employees of General Motors with expertise extending to the then ailing Volkswagen Group in Wolfsburg, where this the new board the " production optimization and procurement " took over. Due to the circumstances of the crossing - López apparently internal company had taken - Opel or filed a criminal complaint against General Motors, the new VW employees. In parallel, in the United States filed a lawsuit on the basis of the RICO Act, a law that was originally created to fight organized crime, charged by the Piëch also was affected. In both cases, General Motors imputed treachery of operating and business secrets and industrial espionage. The lawsuits were withdrawn after a settlement. Piëch had to López 1996 push to resign, also paid VW 100 million U.S. dollars in damages to GM and moved for 1 billion dollars in parts from GM.

With extensive restructuring and rationalization measures to reduce costs Piëch managed to bring the Volkswagen Group in the first few years back in the profit zone, however, there were numerous quality problems with the newer models on. In Piëch's tenure as CEO of Volkswagen came in addition to the entry into high- price segment, including Rolls- Royce Motor Cars and Bugatti Automobiles were bought, and brought out the upper class model Phaeton. By 2002 Ferdinand Piech was CEO of Volkswagen since he is the Chairman of the Supervisory Board.

Porsche and Volkswagen

The Porsche and Piëch families control the sports car manufacturer Porsche. Ferdinand Piëch alone owns 13.16 percent of the ordinary shares. He is not only Chairman of VW and a member of the Porsche supervisory bodies, but also to 10 percent co-owner and Member of the Supervisory Board of Porsche Holding Salzburg, the general importer of the brands of the VW Group in Austria and Eastern Europe. At the time of his chairman of the Supervisory Volkswagen AG and its simultaneous membership in the Supervisory Board at Porsche AG, Porsche AG acquired in early 2005, a share of about 21 percent of the ordinary shares of Volkswagen AG and built this up in October 2008 to just 42.6 percent, which corresponds to a de facto majority at the General Meeting of the Group.

According to press reports since February 2013 determined the Stuttgart public prosecutor against Piëch in connection with the purchase of VW shares by Porsche in the years 2005 to 2008. It's about the accusation that Porsche had 2008 public statements falsely its intention to increase the stake in VW denied. Piëch - as well as others of his term members of the Supervisory Board - the facilitation of market manipulation accused.

Private

Ferdinand Piëch had twelve children, four relations, three of them from the closed in September 1984 marriage to Ursula Piëch, born Plasser by its own account. The kindergarten teacher from Braunau am Inn reported in 1982 on a listing of Marlene Porsche, which was looking for a governess. Five children are from the first marriage to Corina Piëch, née von Planta. Two children come from a twelve- year-long association with Marlene Porsche, who later divorced wife of his cousin Gerd Porsche. Two other children come from another relationship.

Ferdinand Piëch is one of the few personalities in German-speaking countries who have stood up for her dyslexia.

Legacy

Ferdinand Piëch was in September 2010 its shares in Porsche Automobil Holding and shares in the Salzburg car dealerships Porsche Holding GmbH to two private foundations " Ferdinand Karl Alpha " (concerning Porsche Stuttgart) and " Ferdinand Karl Beta" (concerning Porsche Salzburg) based in Vienna. In two 38 -page foundation deeds he tried to create a "sustainable " solution to the " secure future " of the company. Consequently, it becomes Piëch's lifetime alone retain the power to dispose; further assumes wife Ursula in compliance with certain clauses a significant role in the foundation and illegitimate children have more voting rights than non-marital.

Reception

Services

As services Piëch in the VW group ( however, during his time as VW CEO again relativized ) may, among other things, the construction of Audi as a premium brand and called the establishment and development of Seat and Škoda. These include, the development of commercially relatively unsuccessful " three-liter " Lupo and the study of a one-liter car roadworthy. Even the purchase of luxury brands Bentley and Bugatti Automobiles fell under its aegis.

Because of his attention to detail on narrow gap dimensions that increase the perceived quality after his assumption, he received the nickname " Fugen- Ferdl ".

Awards

Criticism

The purchase of Rolls- Royce Motor Cars from the arms company Vickers proved to be a problematic investment. Volkswagen led them first as ' Rolls- Royce & Bentley Motor Cars Ltd.. ' further. But were the naming rights to the Rolls- Royce indirectly at BMW, Volkswagen had the prestigious Rolls- Royce to BMW sell and could even use only the brand name Bentley.

Development and construction of the upper class model Phaeton and the purchase and construction of the luxury brand Bugatti proved despite technical innovations as economic failures and cost Volkswagen annually large amounts.

The same is true for the Passat W8. Although the development was already far advanced, Piëch moved during 1996 presented midrange model Passat from the VW Golf -based platform of the Audi A4 and therefore the transverse mounting of the engine for longitudinal installation to offer vehicles with more than six cylinders in this class to. With enormous effort, an eight -cylinder engine in a W shape was developed specifically for this purpose. This W8 model was rarely sold, and the engine was not used in any other group model, which required the subsequent cessation of production. The built starting in 2005 Passat B6 and its successor are back vehicles with transverse-mounted engines.

Moreover, the austerity policies under Piëch had with the newly created board the " production optimization and procurement " under the direction of Ignacio López to significant quality problems, especially in the VW Golf IV of the first years of production (for example, timing belt damage, cracked engine blocks and paint and body defects), the high warranty costs the VW group loaded and led to image problems.

As CEO of Volkswagen AG, he was responsible for the release of a number of senior management employee, and a variety of boards, both Volkswagen and especially Audi. Examples:

• The Audi CEO Franz -Josef Kortum, which was adopted after 13 months in 1993 because Piëch was not happy with the sales figures.
• Even his successor Herbert Demel had the post after repeated clashes with Piëch soon vacate.
• This was followed by Franz -Josef Paefgen. Piëch dismissed him in 2001.

The discussion about the future of VW CEOs Pischetsrieder early 2006, which once was built by Piech as his successor, was triggered by a statement Piëch. This presented in February 2006 publicly support Pischetsrieder by the employee representatives on the supervisory board of VW in question. Nevertheless, the treaty Pischetsrieder was extended in May 2006. This prevented the Supervisory Board, however, no intention to relieve Pischetsrieder December 31, 2006 its Board post.