According to
a report in the
Financial Times
,
members of the Porsche and Piëch families had “a fateful meeting” three days before the meeting of key Volkswagen directors at which VW chairman Ferdinand Piëch resigned. The Porsche and Piëch families control 51% of VW's voting shares.
On April 10, Piëch had commented to
Der Spiegel
that he was “at a distance” from VW CEO Martin Winterkorn. “Volkswagen officials still cannot fathom why Mr. Piëch triggered the leadership crisis,” the
FT
article said, but he may have been angry because
Der Spiegel
planned to report that Piëch wanted his wife to succeed him as head of the supervisory board.
After Piëch's April 10 comments, his cousin Wolfgang Porsche said Piëch “had not sought the family's approval before going public,” the article said. After “a frantic period of telephone diplomacy,” the VW steering committee issued a statement supporting Winterkorn.
However, on April 22, “Mr. Piëch convened a fateful meeting of Porsche and Piëch family members in Stuttgart” at which he again pushed for Winterkorn's removal and proposed Porsche CEO Matthias Mueller as a replacement, the
FT
reported.
“Top directors were furious because the steering committee had plainly stated its support for Mr. Winterkorn only a few days before. Their exasperation only increased when Mr. Piëch denied he was trying to oust Mr. Winterkorn a few hours later,” the
FT
article said.
At a meeting on April 25, Piëch, grandson of the inventor of the VW Beetle, resigned from all his titles at the company. (Source:
Financial Times
, April 28, 2015.)
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