Ferdinand Piëch

Ferdinand Piëch (born April 17 1937 in Vienna) is an automobile engineer and manager. He graduated from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich with a degree in mechanical engineering in 1962. His mother was Loise Piëch, a daughter of Ferdinand Porsche.

Career highlights:

• 1963-1971 - At Porsche KG in Stuttgart, worked on development of the Porsche Carrera 6, the Porsche 910 and especially the successful Porsche 917
• 1972-1992 - At Audi AG in Ingolstadt, since 1975 manager of technological engineering, responsible for the concepts of Audi 80 and Audi 100. Also began in 1977 the development of a car for the World Rally Championship. The result was the all wheel drive Audi Quattro.
• 1993-2002 - At Volkswagen, became chairman and CEO. Retired 2002, but still serves in an advisory capacity for VW.

While head of Volkswagen AG, Piëch was known for his aggressive moves into other markets. He drove the VW and Audi brands upmarket to great success. Piëch also pursued other marques, successfully acquiring Lamborghini for Audi and establishing Bugatti Automobiles SAS. His purchase of Rolls-Royce and Bentley was more controversial. After successfully buying the Crewe, England carbuilding operation, VW was denied ownership of the Rolls-Royce name. Piëch later claimed that he only really wanted the Bentley brand, but the loss of Rolls to rival BMW was widely seen as a major failure.