Wolfgang Porsche turns 65Shareholder, Member of the Supervisory Board, Family Spokesman and Entrepreneur
Stuttgart. Dr. Wolfgang Porsche, Shareholder and Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Porsche Automobil Holding SE, as well as
Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, is celebrating his 65th birthday on May 10, 2008. Ferdinand (‘Ferry’) Porsche’s youngest son, who was born in Stuttgart, has been a member of the Supervisory Board of the sports car manufacturer since 1978. He has also been family spokesman since the death of his father Ferry in 1998.
Wolfgang Porsche has always seen it as his primary duty to continue to drive forward the company in the same spirit that his father Ferry and grandfather Ferdinand intended when they founded and built up the firm, in close collaboration with the members of the Porsche and Piëch families. As a result of this fundamental stance, he contributed signi-
ficantly to the increase in capital that occurred in 1992 to ensure the continued independence of the family-owned company, and has also influenced all further important business decisions. This particularly includes decisions relating to the expansion of the product portfolio to include the Roadster Boxster, the Cayenne sports utility vehicle, and the four-seater Gran Turismo Panamera, as well as the building of the Leipzig plant, and last but not least, the stake of Porsche AG in the Volkswagen Group in 2005.
As Dr. Wendelin Wiedeking, CEO of Porsche SE, notes: “Throughout the past 16 years, Wolfgang Porsche has tirelessly supported us as an approachable and competent advisor, both on everyday questions as well as on the various strategic decisions we have faced to position the company in the best way. This advice has always been open and frank, and he has served as an essential bridge between company and shareholders. In all decisions, the Porsche Managing Board could always count on his integrity and his support, and for this we are extremely thankful”.
Wolfgang Porsche was born on May 10, 1943, the youngest son of Dorothea and Ferry Porsche, the founder of the sports car icon. He spent the first 6 ½ years of his life at the so called ‘Schüttgut’ in Zell am See, Austria, to which his parents and grandparents had retreated during the final years of the war. The family returned to Stuttgart in 1950. At first, Wolfgang went to the Waldorf School in Stuttgart, before moving over to the Odenwald School in Heppenheim. It was here that he obtained his Abitur (higher school-leaving certificate) in 1965, and at the same time abandoned his training as an apprentice locksmith. Following this, he obtained his degree in Business Administration from the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration. He received his doctorate in International Business in 1973.
After completing his studies, Wolfgang Porsche went into business, and became an importer for Yamaha motorbikes in Austria, a trade that he pursued successfully for 27 years. He returned to Stuttgart in 1976, and worked at the then Daimler-Benz AG as a manager in several different areas of domestic and foreign sales. In 1978 he was appointed a member of the Supervisory Board of Porsche AG, taking over the position of Chairman in January 2007. He was also appointed Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Porsche Automobil Holding SE at its incorporation in June 2007. In addition, he has been a member of the Supervisory Board of Porsche Holding Ges.m.b.H. in Salzburg, the largest Austrian trading company, since 1983. Furthermore, he is Chairman of the Advisory Board of the Swiss watch manufacturer Eterna S.A. in Grenchen, and, since April 24, 2008, a member of the Supervisory Board of Volkswagen AG, Wolfsburg.
On the death of his father Ferry in 1998, he was selected as spokesman by the Porsche family. As such, Wolfgang Porsche considers his main role to be that of an intermediary and consensus-builder between the individual family members to ensure that the shared goal of the independence and financial stability of the Porsche company isnever compromised. His calm, objective style, as well as his wit and humor, are his chief assets. In this regard, Wolfgang Porsche has even described himself as a ‘Swabian Austrian’, for whom level-headedness, reliability and tradition are all important. The father-of-four lives alternately in Munich, Stuttgart, and at the paternal ‘Schüttgut’ in Zell am See, which he has inherited. A keen hunter, he has always maintained his special affinity with the sports car icon that is still ‘made in Zuffenhausen’, both to its past and its present.
Wolfgang Porsche has received numerous honors for his services to business. In 2005 he was awarded the ‘Great Golden Medal for Services to the Republic of Austria’ by the Prime Minister of Austria, the highest award granted by the country of his birth.
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Please note: Photographic material on Dr. Wolfgang Porsche is available to accredited journalists for downloading from the Porsche press database at the internet address http://presse.porsche.de/.
06.05.2008