The sudden resignation of Ferdinand Piech over the weekend from his role as VW Group chairman has intrigued many but now we’re starting to get the details behind the decision.
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It appears that the grandson of Ferdinand Porsche was forced to resign by the VW board because he was allegedly sabotaging a deal to support CEO Martin Winterkorn by secretly plotting to oust him. According to sources close to the VW board, the carmaker’s powerful works council and the state of Lower Saxony decided they had enough of Piech’s maneuvering when news broke last week that he had been lobbying family members to install Porsche CEO Matthias Mueller at the helm of VW.
Subsequently, Lower Saxony and the VW works council asked for a meeting of senior board members in what was the second emergency VW summit in little over a week.
“It was one of the straws that broke the camel’s back,” a source close to one of the VW board’s labor representatives, told Reuters. The unknown person was referring to a failed attempt by Piech to convince fellow family members to dump Winterkorn and replace him with Mueller.
Following the meeting, Piech was given the chance of a dignified exit in the form of a resignation, as the alternative would have been to be voted out by the board. To this moment, neither Piech nor VW have commented on the resignation.
One thing is certain though: Piech’s resignation is the end of an era for Volkswagen.
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