Ferdinand Pich Objects Appointment Of Nieces To Volkswagen Board
Ferdinand Piëch isn’t Volkswagen’s chairman anymore, but he doesn’t want a couple of his relatives to replace him and his wife on the board, either.
After Piëch and his wife, Ursula, left the supervisory board after a failed attempt to oust CEO Martin Winterkorn from his position last week, the board’s members appointed Louise Kiessling and Julia Kuhn-Piëch – Piëch’s nieces – to fill the vacated seats on the behest of the company’s management board, Automotive News Europe reports. The appointments were immediately approved by the local court in Braunschweig.
The elder Piëch made his objection to their appointment, citing their limited industry experience as his reason. Instead, he wants former BMW and Premier Automotive Group exec Wolfgang Reitzle and former Siemens chief Brigitte Ederer, with Reitzle a likely candidate to fill the chairman position.
Little is known about Kiessling and Kuhn-Piëch thus far. The former is an Austrian businesswoman who studied vehicle design in London, the latter works in real estate. Both were chosen by the entire family outside of Ferdinand Piëch, with their appointments maintaining the balance of power of the Porsche-Piëch clan.
Whoever does end up in the vacated seats, they will serve out the remainder of Ferdinand and Ursula Piëch’s term, set to end in 2017.
[Photo credit: Roger/ Flickr/ CC BY-SA 2.0]
Seattle-based writer, blogger, and photographer for many a publication. Born in Louisville. Raised in Kansas. Where I lay my head is home.
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It's popular over here to take pot-shots at GM management, but at least they've never even come close to this level of dysfunction. I suspect the Auto industry news is only about a step away from looking a lot like Bild (with fewer topless girls, assuming we've seen the last of Max Mosley.)
Why does Piëch have any say if he's no longer on the board? He really needs to stop meddling and go drive his Veyron around the Black Forest. Maybe he can crash it into a lake for fun and profit.
I think Madonna wrote a song about this? "Papa don't Piech"
With Wolfgang Reitzle as chairman, things will get interesting, to say the least.