Volkswagen AG board chairman Ferdinand Piech, a major figure in the German auto industry, has stepped down after clashing with other board members over his criticism of Volkswagen chief executive officer Martin Winterkorn.
Volkswagen on Saturday said in a statement that Piech, 78, was resigning with immediate effect.
Piech had said in an interview with Der Spiegel published earlier this month that he was distancing himself from Winterkorn.
He did not publicly give a reason for his remark. Volkswagen is profitable and saw global sales pass the 10 million mark last year as it pursues its goal of dethroning Japan’s Toyota Motor Corp as the world’s largest automaker. However, its core Volkswagen brand has struggled to hold down costs and to gain market share in the US.
Piech’s view on Winterkorn was rejected by other members of the board, who said that he had not agreed that stance with them. They pushed back, and the board’s six-member executive committee, which includes Piech, issued a statement on April 17 saying that Winterkorn, 67, was “the best possible” chief executive for Volkswagen.
Winterkorn, chief executive since 2007, got support from the head of Volkswagen’s influential employee council, while Lower Saxony Prime Minister Stephan Weil, a minority shareholder in the company, criticized the public discussion about the company’s leadership. Piech’s cousin, Wolfgang Porsche, said Piech’s comment represented his “private opinion.”
The Piech and Porsche families together control a majority of shares in Volkswagen. Volkswagen said Piech’s wife, Ursula, was also resigning from her board seat.
The Volkswagen statement said that the board’s executive committee had met and decided that “in view of the background of the last weeks, the mutual trust necessary for successful cooperation does not exist.”
The statement said that Volkswagen deputy board chairman Berthold Huber would serve as interim chairman.
Piech served as Volkswagen chief executive from 1993 to 2002, gaining credit for turning the company around and expanding its reach with new brands, such as Czech car maker Skoda Auto at the lower end of the market and Bentley Motors Ltd, Automobiles Ettore Bugatti and Automobili Lamborghini SpA at the luxury end.
The grandson of Ferdinand Porsche, who founded the sports car company Porsche AG and designed the first version of the Volkswagen Beetle, Piech has been a major power broker in the German auto industry. He formerly worked at Porsche and as the head of luxury carmaker Audi AG, owned by Volkswagen.
At Volkswagen, he was behind the recreation of the 1960s-era Beetle as the New Beetle and launched a luxury model, the Volkswagen Phaeton, which stretched the firm’s brand image as a mass-market carmaker. As Volkswagen board chairman, he turned the tables on an attempt by Porsche to take over Volkswagen. Porsche wound up overloaded with debt and it was Volkswagen that took over Porsche and folded it into its stable of brands.
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