Former VW Group Chairman Ferdinand Piech Dead At Age 82

The Clintons

He probably had dirt on people.

Automotive royalty. He ruled with an iron fist answerable to no one but he leveraged his holdings and that of his family, took Porsche to the next level, oversaw most successful Porsche race car programs, built an empire (current VW portfolio of brands), resurrected Lambo and Bugatti, though more than likely the cause of dieselgate scandal because of his autocratic management style. Never a fan of his but he certainly lived quite the life.

An automotive icon known as a ruthless leader but always a dreamer. His drive pushed VW to become what it is today - the world's biggest automaker.

Was personally behind the Veyron, Phaeton, Lambo's comeback and many other things.

Obviously not all successful but he always shot for the stars.

RIP

@RL- You will rarely find a leader at that level that isn't ruthless. They can seem very professional on the outside, but inside they are driven to a scary level. I once had a client admit at lunch his boss (a CFO at a big 5 Accounting firm) scared him and was the most ruthless guy he ever met.

He was also out maneuvered embarrassingly by BMW on the purchase of Rolls Royce/Bentley. Entered a bidding war with BMW for the purchase of RR/Bentley driving the price up to astronomical levels at the time. While winning the bidding war for the companies it didn’t include use of the Rolls Royce name or Logo, which BMW had quietly purchased out from under him. Left with a car company without a name and logo a deal was struck with BMW to separate RR and Bentley between the 2 companies. BMW ended up owning RR for a fraction of the value of the company.

Cue the "hilarious" and super commie lib, Bill Maher