Volkswagen Head Oliver Blume Faces Pressure To Step Down From CEO Job at Porsche
Oliver Blume is facing investor pressure to step down from the top job at Porsche.
Oliver Blume has a long history with Porsche. The German-born auto executive has chaired the Porsche Automotive Group (AG) executive board and served as the brand’s CEO for nine years. However, Blume is facing pressure to step down from Porsche amid its parent company’s current crisis.
According to the Financial Times, Volkswagen Group, Porsche’s parent company is experiencing turmoil between corporate leadership and the brand’s works council. Blume and the leadership at VW Group outlined plans to shut down factories in Germany and ax tens of thousands of jobs. It’s the first time in Volkswagen’s nearly 90-year tenure that such cuts have been necessary.
Investors Fear Blume Can’t Handle Porsche & Volkswagen Simultaneously
Blume took the reigns of Volkswagen Group in 2022. Since then, investors and analysts have questioned Blume’s ability to run both Porsche and Volkswagen concurrently. Still, it’s far from the first time an auto executive has run multiple brands.
Carlos Ghosn, for instance, ran Fortune Global 500 companies Renault and Nissan simultaneously for 12 years. However, in Ghosn’s case, like Blume, the executive found himself in hot water at his career’s end. Of course, Japanese authorities arrested Ghosn for financial misconduct. Not quite the same as the calls for Blume to simply step down from Porsche and focus on VW Group.
Volkswagen, Porsche shareholders Want Blume out Amid ‘Structural Crisis’
With the Chinese market for German cars drying up, Blume asserts that the cuts and factory closures are an unfortunate necessity. However, shareholders want the dual-role CEO to drop the second hat and focus on VW Group.
Ingo Speich at Deka Investment, one of VW Group’s largest shareholding entities, identifies the dual-role CEO application as problematic given the current crisis. “How can he do both jobs in the right way when the automotive industry is in a structural crisis?”
Photos: Porsche