Wendelin Wiedeking (born August 28, 1952 in Ahlen, Germany) [1] is the former president and chief executive officer of the German car manufacturer, Porsche AG, a post he held from 1993 through July 23, 2009. He was also speaker of the company's executive committee and was a member of the supervisory board of Volkswagen AG from 2006 to 2009. [2]
Wiedeking was born in Ahlen, North Rhine-Westphalia. He grew up in Beckum, Germany, and attended RWTH in Aachen. After graduation in 1978, he remained at RWTH for graduate school, in order to attain a doctorate in engineering. He earned this degree in 1983. [3]
His professional career began in 1983 as Director's Assistant in the Production and Materials Management area of Porsche AG in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen. [4]
A mechanical engineer by training, he joined Porsche in 1983, aged 31. After a stint at Wiesbaden based Glyco AG, [5] a subsidiary of auto-parts maker Federal-Mogul, he returned to Porsche as head of production in 1991, [5] taking over two years later as Chairman (CEO) when Porsche was close to bankruptcy. Due to Porsche's large shareholding in Volkswagen, Wiedeking also found himself on the supervisory board of that company. Some industry analysts believed that Porsche could not survive on its own, but Wiedeking, who says he made his first million by the age of 30 with real estate investments, took on the challenge. [6]
Wiedeking, then 40 years old, who with his spectacles and moustache looked like "a clerk at a venetian blinds manufacturer", according to Der Spiegel magazine, soon imposed his gung-ho management style on the workforce. Within two years he managed a surprise turnaround by trimming the product line-up, modernizing the production system based on Toyota's lean manufacturing system and negotiating new work rules with the unions.
Wiedeking asserted in a 2006 interview that "every product must earn money. Otherwise you are simply pursuing a hobby, which is no task for an auto-business". [5] By then he had dropped the unprofitable 928 and 968 models, overhauled the iconic 911 and developed two new models: the Boxster convertible and the Cayenne SUV. In 2007 the stock market value of the company rose from 300 million to 25 billion euro. [7]
Wiedeking played a leading role in Porsche's attempted takeover of Volkswagen, which was ultimately unsuccessful although windfall gains from financial instruments linked to VW shares helped Wiedeking become the best paid executive in Germany in 2008. The bid left the Porsche holding company with debts of €10 billion, whilst Wiedeking walked away with a severance package of €50million. [8] After his departure from Porsche Wiedeking was charged with market manipulation for his role in the takeover bid. [9] The charges were dropped in July 2016 due to a too little chance of success. [10]
At the suggestion of the Baden-Württemberg parliamentary party CDU Wiedeking was invited to take part in the Federal Convention in 2004 to the election of the federal president.
In the end of 2007 in the annual survey "Manager nach Noten" by the consulting company Marketing Corporation that interviews 1000 managers he received the second best rating. [11] In the middle of 2009 he only reached 12th place
Since 2005 he is shareholder of the shoe manufacturer Heinrich Dinkelacker with 30%. The company’s headquarter is in Bietigheim-Bissingen. In addition to that he invests in Internet firms such as the online holiday lodge provider e-domizil GmbH & Co. KG. [12]
Since 2013 he is establishing the restaurant chain Tialini. [13]
In 2008 Wiedeking founded two charities with 5 million euros private capital each. Both charities, one in his hometown Beckum and one in Bietigheim-Bissingen where he lived for many years, only pursue charitable purposes. Their main goal is to support families, children and young people in need. Among others they support the Seehaus Leonberg [14] and the youth center Sperlingshof.
Whilst at Porsche, Wiedeking appeared several times in the American automobile magazine Motor Trend 's "Power List" (05/06/07/08/09). The article ranks the most influential people in the automotive world; in the 2005 article he was ranked as #6, in 2006 he was ranked #3, while in the 2007 article he was ranked as #4. Wiedeking dropped to #7 in 2008, but reached a personal high #2 in 2009.
Other accolades include
Wiedeking is married and has two children: Isabel Wiedeking, born in 1983, and Wendelin Wiedeking Junior. He currently lives close to Stuttgart.
Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, usually shortened to Porsche, is a German automobile manufacturer specializing in luxury, high-performance sports cars, SUVs and sedans, headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The company is owned by Volkswagen AG, a controlling stake of which is owned by Porsche Automobil Holding SE. Porsche's current lineup includes the 718, 911, Panamera, Macan, Cayenne and Taycan.
Volkswagen AG, known internationally as the Volkswagen Group, is a German public multinational conglomerate manufacturer of passenger and commercial vehicles, motorcycles, engines and turbomachinery. Headquartered in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany, and since the late 2000s is a publicly traded family business owned by Porsche SE, which in turn is half-owned but fully controlled by the Austrian-German Porsche and Piëch family. The company also offers related services, including financing, leasing, and fleet management. In 2016, it was the world's largest automaker by sales, and keeping this title in 2017, 2018, and 2019, selling 10.9 million vehicles and was the largest automaker by revenue in 2022. It has maintained the largest market share in Europe for over two decades. It ranked seventh in the 2020 Fortune Global 500 list of the world's largest companies. In 2023, Volkswagen Group was the largest company in the European Union and the largest car manufacturer in the world by revenue.
Ferdinand Anton Ernst Porsche, mainly known as Ferry Porsche, was an Austrian-German technical automobile designer and automaker-entrepreneur. He operated Porsche AG in Stuttgart, Germany. His father, Ferdinand Porsche Sr. was also a renowned automobile engineer and founder of Volkswagen and Porsche. His nephew, Ferdinand Piëch, was the longtime chairman of Volkswagen Group, and his son, Ferdinand Alexander Porsche, was involved in the design of the 911.
The Enz is a river flowing north from the Black Forest to the Neckar in Baden-Württemberg. It is 106 km long.
Beckum is a town in the northern part of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is about 20 km north-east of Hamm and 35 km south-east of Münster. It gives its name to the nearby Beckum Hills.
Bietigheim-Bissingen is the second-largest town in the district of Ludwigsburg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany with 42,515 inhabitants in 2007. It is situated on the river Enz and the river Metter, close to its confluence with the Neckar, about 19 km north of Stuttgart, and 20 km south of Heilbronn.
Leonberg is a town in the German federal state of Baden-Württemberg about 16 km (10 mi) to the west of Stuttgart, the state capital. About 45,000 people live in Leonberg, making it the third-largest borough in the rural district of Böblingen.
Tamm is a Stadt (town) in the district of Ludwigsburg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated 6 km northwest of Ludwigsburg, 4 km south of Bietigheim-Bissingen, and approx. 17 km north of Stuttgart's city center. As of 2020, the town had 12,628 inhabitants.
Porsche Automobil Holding SE, usually shortened to Porsche SE, is a German multinational corporation primarily known as a holding company of Volkswagen Group with investments in the automotive industry. Porsche SE is headquartered in Zuffenhausen, a city district of Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg and is majority owned by the Austrian-German Porsche-Piëch family. The company was founded in Stuttgart as Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche GmbH in 1931 by Ferdinand Porsche (1875–1951) and his son-in-law Anton Piëch (1894–1952).
The Western Railway in Württemberg was opened in 1853 and ran from Bietigheim-Bissingen to Bruchsal. It was the first railway link between the states of Württemberg and Baden in Germany and one of the oldest lines in Germany.
Michael Macht was the board of management member in charge of production with the German carmaker Volkswagen. Macht was formerly CEO of the management board at Porsche where he was appointed chairman of the Porsche AG and Porsche Automobil Holding executive board on 23 July 2009 and also served on the board of Porsche SE. Macht was succeeded at Porsche by Matthias Müller, who had previously been in charge of product strategy at VW.
Bietigheim-Bissingen station is a junction station in the town of Bietigheim-Bissingen in the German state of Baden-Württemberg where the Württemberg Western Railway separates from the Franconia Railway. With its eight station tracks it is the largest station in the district of Ludwigsburg. It is also served by line S 5 of the Stuttgart S-Bahn.
The Karlsruhe–Mühlacker railway is a railway line in the west of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It was built between 1859 and 1863 and is one of the oldest railways in Germany. It was built as the second connection between the networks of the Grand Duchy of Baden State Railway and the Royal Württemberg State Railways and it still constitutes an important east–west route in southern Germany.
Tamm (Württemberg) station (abbreviated to Tamm is a station on the network of the Stuttgart S-Bahn in Tamm in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, located at the 20.2 kilometre mark of the Franconia Railway.
Wolfgang Heinz Porsche is a German-Austrian manager and a member of the Porsche family. He is a shareholder and chairman of the Supervisory Board of Porsche Automobil Holding SE as well as of Porsche AG. He is the youngest son of Ferdinand (Ferry) Porsche and Dorothea Reitz. His oldest brother is Ferdinand (Butzi) Porsche, designer of the Porsche 911.
FSV 08 Bissingen is a German association football club from the town of Bietigheim-Bissingen, Baden-Württemberg. The club plays in the tier five Oberliga Baden-Württemberg.
Dürr Dental is a German company in the dental industry, which was founded as a precision-mechanics workshop in Stuttgart-Feuerbach in 1941 by the brothers Karl and Wilhelm Dürr, from Gechingen close to Calw in the Schwarzwald. Today's company headquarters of the Swabian company is in Bietigheim-Bissingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. More than 475 employees are employed in Bietigheim-Bissingen in the areas of production and logistics, research and development, acquisition, management as well as sales and marketing. The Dürr Dental group employs more than 1,300 employees.
Hans Dieter Pötsch is an Austrian businessman, the chairman of the executive board of Porsche SE, and chairman of the supervisory board of Volkswagen since 2015, when he succeeded Ferdinand Piëch.
Christian Jung is a German politician of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) who has been serving as a member of the State Parliament of Baden-Württemberg since the 2021 elections. He was previously a member of the Bundestag from 2017 until 2021.
Fabian Benedikt Meinrad Gramling is a German politician of the CDU who has been serving as a member of the German Bundestag since 2021. He was previously a member of the Baden-Württemberg state parliament from 2016 to 2021.
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