Volkswagen's Mercurial Former Chairman, Ferdinand Piech, Dies At 82

The former Volkswagen Group chairmanFerdinand Piechhas died. Multiple reports from German media sources say he collapsed at a Bavarian restaurant before being taken to a hospital, where he died at age 82.

The great-grandson of Ferdinand Porsche, Piech started out as an engineer in the family business in 1963, and he went on to become one of the most influential figures in the international automotive industry. During his time with Porsche, Piëch made his name by spearheading the development of the iconic 906 race car and was an important part of Porsche's motorsport operations.

His final contributions to Porsche's racing heritage was with the legendary917. In 1963 he moved to Audi where he worked his way up to CEO and, as he did at Porsche, pushed to modernize production and technology and delivered some more exceptional race cars, including theAudi Quattro.

In the early 1990s, Piech became chairman of Volkswagen at a time when the automaker was plagued by quality problems and high costs. VW was in trouble, however, Piëch managed to turn things around without resorting to large-scale job cuts while building better cars. Along the way, he managed to walk the line and endear himself to unions and shareholders alike. He also recognized the importance of adding prestige brands and brought Bentley, Ducati, Bugatti, Lamborghini into VW's stables.