Piech, Porsche Family Won’t Take Management Roles at VW

Members of the Piech and Porsche families that control Volkswagen AG are no longer allowed to take top management jobs at VW, clan leaders Wolfgang Porsche and Hans-Michel Piech tell the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

The rule ends the possibility of another crisis like the one created by Ferdinand Piech, who was ousted as VW Group chairman in 2015 after a power struggle with group CEO Martin Winterkorn. Piech built the group into the world’s largest carmaker. But his autocratic style has been blamed for the company’s diesel emission cheating scandal and an inflexible bureaucracy that stifled efficiencies and innovation.

Last week Piech agreed to sell most of his stake in Porsche Automobil Holding SE, the holding company that controls VW to Hans-Michel Piech, to his younger brother and disburse his remaining holding to other Piech family members.

Wolfgang Porsche, who chairs Porsche SE, says the only way a family member could again become a senior executive at VW is with 100% approval of both families—an option he dismisses as  “theory" only.