Ferdinand Piëch

Ferdinand Piëch, who lived from 17 April 1937 to 25 August 2019, was an Austrian engineer and executive who shaped the German car industry for three decades. A grandson of Ferdinand Porsche, he graduated in mechanical engineering from ETH Zurich in 1962 and started at Porsche in 1963, where he headed development and worked on the 906 and the 917. He left in 1972, joined Audi that year, and became chairman of its board of management in 1988, pushing the all-wheel-drive Quattro and the TDI diesel engine. In 1993 he moved to Volkswagen, led its executive board until 2002 and then chaired its supervisory board until 2015. Under him Volkswagen gathered brands such as Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, Porsche and Skoda into one group structure, and he was named Car Executive of the Century in 1999.