Ferdinand Piëch

Biography

Ferdinand Karl Piëch was born in Vienna on 17 April 1937, a grandson of Ferdinand Porsche. He began his career at Porsche in 1963 under his uncle Ferry, and his racing programme produced the Porsche 917, of which at least 25 had to be built so that it could race with a 5-litre engine.

In August 1972 he moved to Audi in Ingolstadt as head of special projects. In 1977 Audi launched the world's first five-cylinder petrol engine in the Audi 100 5E, and his years there also brought the quattro all-wheel drive and the TDI diesel. He became chairman of Audi's board of management in 1988.

In 1993 Piëch succeeded Carl Hahn as chief executive of Volkswagen AG. Under him the group added Lamborghini, Bentley and Bugatti, developed the Bugatti Veyron and built the Volkswagen Phaeton. He was named Car Executive of the Century in 1999, chaired the supervisory board from 2002 and resigned from all his Volkswagen Group posts on 25 April 2015. He died on 25 August 2019 in Aschau, Bavaria.