Split VW board meets to find new chairman

VOLKSWAGEN’S supervisory board met yesterday to discuss finding a new chairman to fill the void left by Ferdinand Piech’s shock departure last month.

VW’s 20-member controlling panel, led by interim chairman Berthold Huber, met in the German town of Hanover ahead of what is likely to become a tense shareholder meeting today.

It was unlikely that the board – evenly split between investor and labour representatives – would reach a decision on a new chairman, one source said, declining to be more specific.

Huber is a former boss of the IG Metall labour union and is not seen as a candidate for the role on a permanent basis.

“The search for a successor to Piech at the top of the supervisory board has the utmost priority for investors,” Ingo Speich, a fund manager at Union Investment, which holds 0.6% of VW preference shares, said.

“The ideal candidate needs a high degree of automotive expertise and authority, and should, if possible, be from outside the company and be neutral,” Speich said.

VW, Europe’s largest carmaker, and the works council has declined to comment on potential candidates mentioned in the media.

These include long-time automotive manager Wolfgang Reitzle and Wolfgang Porsche, chairman of Porsche SE, the holding company owned by the Porsche and Piech families, which controls a majority stake in VW.