Volkswagen chairman Ferdinand Piech solidifies his and the Piech-Porsche clan’s control of Europe’s largest carmaker by placing his wife in positions of power. A year after taking a seat on Volkswagen’s supervisory board, Ursula Piech will be up for certain election to Audi’s supervisory panel at the annual shareholders’ meeting on May 16, Reuters reports.
Audi is owned by Volkswagen, but its shares are listed separately. According to Reuters, the election “to the board of VW’s biggest profit contributor will be nothing but a formality.”
Ursula Plasser, a trained kindergarten teacher, was hired by Piech as a nanny when he lived and produced two children with Marlene Porsche, the wife of his cousin Gerd Porsche. The children came in addition to five he had from a previous marriage and two “from another connection.” Ursula was buxom, blond and 25. Two years later, she was married to Ferdinand Piech, who was and is twenty years ahead of her.
Provided she does not remarry, Ursula Piech will take over her husband’s interest when he dies. Ferdinand Piech will turn 76 on April 17.
You couldn’t make this stuff up.
All he needs is a Max Mosley style Nazi leather party to put the cherry on top.
What does she know about cars or the auto business to be in a senior position? I understand her connections but I would expect VW, as a major auto maker, to value expertise.
I don’t know, but to be fair, if she’s been paying attention/taking notes for even a few of the 30+ years they’ve been together, she should know more about cars and the auto business than some.
She’s joining the supervisory board, it’s not like she’s being put in charge of product planning or taking on some executive role. As a major shareholder, she certainly has a right to representation.
Well, she does seem to have an interest in out-board suspension design.
“What does she know about cars or the auto business to be in a senior position?”
Probably as much as the average car executive. Very Little
Ouch! Germanic version of aunt Esther.
Ever seen a period photo of LaWanda Page all cleaned up?
My interest was piqued
http://celebslists.com/images/lawanda-page-05.jpg
Phyllis Diller did have a sister. We just didn’t know that until now.
“Phyllis Diller did have a sister.”
“That’s a Bingo!
Isn’t that how you say it…
‘a Bingo’?”
It seems irrelevant since Piech clearly has decided he is not going to die.
Truth.
76? He hasn’t even reached Second Puberty yet.
But we know all Bond Villains eventually get their just-desserts…
Please explain Vladimir Putin… who with his incredible wealth, babes, nuclear weapons, and probable sharks with fricking laser beams of course is the ultimate Bond villain.
Ernst Stavro Blofeld – although he hasn’t appeared in any recent bond films if you look at the Sean Connery and Roger Moore Bond films, Blofeld must be a time lord or something.
Ernst’s latest incarnation is leader of Russia.
Nice.
And the Volkswagen soap opera continues….
Sheesh lady, cover those saggy things up.
I can imagine the Japanese’ shock at seeing their first Europeans with noses like hers. Their gaijin paintings from that period are obsessed with them.
Oh Gawd!! Now I have to unsee that picture again.
That woman looks like Jimmy Durante. If that’s the trophy wife for a rich industrialist, I can’t imagine how gruesome the first wife must have been.
In other news “The Truth About Cars” has been acquired with some spare change lying around in Piech’s desk and added to the Volkswagen empire only to be summarily shut down due to what Chief Editor Ursula Plasser considered inappropriate comment and content.
Well, I think she’d be a fun person to have around. Can TTAC come back now?
Couldn’t be any worse than Susan Docherty.