For a few hours on Walpurgis everyone thought that Volkswagen gained two new board members from the power Piëch family – two sisters daughters of Ferdinand Piëch. But now the data in Figure Zeitung that the outmaneuvered Piëch himself would have two completely different candidates. One thing is clear: There is all-out war in the family Porsche-Piëch who control the VW with 50.7 percent.
Maybe you thought that large global corporations such as Volkswagen, or indeed companies that SCA and Industrivärden was governed strictly business, without emotion or something so paltry as personal claim to power came in the way.
Ehh, think again.
A power battle that must TV series Game of Thrones seem like Donald Duck on Christmas Eve has a few weeks have shaken Germany’s biggest companies Volkswagen with 600 000 employees. And now the story takes a new, somewhat bizarre, use the AGM to be held on Tuesday.
It all began two weeks ago when the group’s patriarch, 78-year-old (then) Chairman Ferdinand Piëch was trying to freeze out its CEO Martin Winterkorn. When turned all the power in the company against the old lion Piëch: Family Porsche, Lower Saxony (who owns more than 20 percent and has a golden share that gives them veto power on major issues) and the major unions. On Saturday evening, during the tumultuous forms, resigned Ferdinand Piëch, together with his wife Ursula Piëch, who was also a board member.
It was hard not to think Anders Nyrén and Sverker Martin Löfs exits in Industrivärden’s sphere of power in Sweden.
After that speculation about successors gone red hot.
On May Day Eve came as an official communiqué from Volkswagen AG to two siblings daughters Piëch becomes a successor to him and his wife Ursula.
It was 57-year-old Louise Kiesling , who studied and worked with the fashion and automotive design, and last fall acquired the venerable textile company Backhaisen. She is, according to German news agency DPA daughter of Ferdinand Piëchs older, and since 2006 deceased sister Louise Daxer-Piëch.
The other new member was the 34-year-old Julia Kuhn-Piëch. The latter is the daughter of Hans-Michel Piëch who also sits in the 20-strong Board and Ferdinand Piëchs younger brother of Julia Kuhn-Piëch’s estate and moreover board member of VW-owned truck manufacturer MAN since 2014.
According to German newspaper Die Weilt received CEO Martin Winterkorn self information from the family Piëch. And according to the German Companies Act began the new members to act immediately.
In a few hours while Walpurgis fires donated springlike hope seemed as if the storm surge subsided.
But then came the new rather sensational details in Picture Zeitung – as all major German media now cite, among other Frankurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Ferdinand Piëch goes against their siblings daughters whom he, according to data to Picture, says lack of experience in the automotive industry.
Instead, he increasingly appears as a kind of maverick, until two of its own very experienced candidates: Wolfgang Reitzle and Brigitte Ederer.
The 66-year-old Wolfgang Reitzle has held a number of senior positions at BMW and Ford. For us Swedes, he became known as the general manager of Ford’s luxury car division, known as the Premier Automotive Group, between 1999 and 2002 in which Volvo Cars signed. He is a strong name often found in speculation when it should be added the Chairman of the large listed companies in Germany. But he is now chairman of Continental – which can be counted as a competitor and put a spoke in the wheel.
Brigitte Ederer is 59 years old and has been , CEO of Siemens and is now chairman of the State Austrian train and banbolaget (Österreichischen Bundesbahnen).
Both could also aspire to the presidency – which right now is a completely open history. Neither Volkwagen or Porsche AG (the holding company that families Piëch and Porsche have ownership in Volkswagen) have wanted to comment on the information on Piëchs new candidates to the German newspapers.
Stay happy and think after Ferdinand Piëch who became CEO in 1993 and chairman in 2002 goes against their own brothers and sisters daughters – after they are formally elected by a court in Braunschweig, Germany.
Consider also that families Piëch-Porsche has 50.7 percent of the majority – and to act with one voice.
The main conclusion is the full battle within the owner family. And certainly we can gape and surprised and even smile at all – but in the extremely competitive car industry tours dangerous. On Monday, it is an extraordinary Board meeting. And on Tuesday, the Annual General Meeting of Hannover.
Exactly what will happen there is not clear – Piëchs rapid exit and after the game came far too close to the meeting for us to see this exactly. Since Saturday is controlled automotive group of the interim chairman Berthold Huber, who is the former chairman of IG Metall and who have confidence in all the camps. He will formally lead the meeting on Tuesday and indications are that he remain for some time, as a stable bridge.
But after the recent days should the Volkswagen Group’s lawyers in Wolfsburg using the day all hours of trying to sort out what really applies – all to the world’s second largest automotive group should work in peace as soon as possible.
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