Pursuits

VW Patriarch Piech Handed Rare Defeat on 78th Birthday

Ferdinand Piech, chairman of the board of Volkswagen .
Photographer: Michele Tantussi/Bloomberg

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By Christoph Rauwald and Elisabeth Behrmann

April 17, 2015 at 12:01 PM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

Volkswagen AG Chairman Ferdinand Piech isn’t the chatty type, but the few words he utters in public have had the power to crush a career.

That run may have ended on Friday. After a weeklong standoff between Piech and Chief Executive Officer Martin Winterkorn, supervisory board leaders defied Piech to back Winterkorn, saying they will propose the CEO’s contract be extended past 2016.