Porsche chief executive fired

Category: Porsche

Written by: Henry on Tuesday, July 28th, 2009 at 2:31 pm

The first casualty of the Porsche financial debacle has emerged, and it’s their chief executive Wendelin Wiedeking. Wiedeking was fired this week after the events of recent months where Porsche accrued massive amounts of debt in the failed takeover bid of rival Volkswagen, the largest car maker in Europe.

Wiedeking was instrumental in Porsche’s rejuvenation in the 1990s, but his past accomplishments counted for nothing this week as he left his post after nearly 20 years.

The decision to fire Wiedeking came after Porsche’s advisory board met this week in an all night meeting. They also agreed to allow their new chief executive Michael Macht, to proceed with plans to gain funding from the Qatar government and to proceed with the takeover of Porsche by Volkswagen, which will make them the tenth car manufacturer owned by Volkswagen.

Wiedeking wanted to keep Porsche separate from VW and guarantee the independence of the company, but pressure from Porsche made this impossible, and the takeover of Porsche by VW is now inevitable.

Joining Wiedeking will be the CTO of Porsche, Holger Härter.

Wiedeking was renowned as the highest paid chief executive in Germany, earning a staggering €77.4 million. He also earned 0.9% of the profits made by Porsche, which included the sale of every new Porsche worldwide.