Ferdinand Piëch, chairman of Volkswagen Group’s supervisory board and his wife, who also has a position on the board have resigned according to a statement from the company. VW Group stated that the move was made because mutual trust no longer existed between Piëch and the company management.
Piëch, who had a history of ousting employees and managers who he deemed incompetent had recently given an interview with a German magazine in which he stated that he didn’t want the Group’s CEO, Martin Winterkorn, to replace him as chairman. The comments he made were reversed when support for Winterkorn came in response to Piëch’s statement, but his resignation indicates that he may have had deeper disagreements with the rest of the Group’s management.
Piëch himself owns a sizeable stake in both Porsche and the VW Group, being the grandson on Ferdinand Porsche himself. The official word is that his temporary replacement will be his deputy, Berthold Huber until the board elects the next chairman.
