FRANKFURT (Reuters) -- Former Volkswagen CEO Martin Winterkorn is stepping down as head of Porsche Automobil Holding SE, the family-owned holding company that controls a majority stake in Volkswagen.
Hans Dieter Poetsch, Porsche SE’s chief financial officer and VW Group's new chairman, has been appointed to succeed Winterkorn as chairman of the Porsche SE executive board with effect from Nov. 1, Porsche SE said in a statement on Saturday.
Porsche SE is controlled by the Porsche and Piech families.
Winterkorn resigned as VW Group CEO after the automaker admitted cheating in diesel emissions tests, triggering the company's biggest business scandal in its 78-year history, but he retained a number of key positions within the group.
Earlier this week, several media reported that Winterkorn, who quit at VW last month, would step down from his remaining posts related to the company in the coming days.
Winterkorn is also chairman of VW's luxury brand Audi, its trucks division Scania, and its newly-created Truck & Bus holding.
Lower Saxony, VW's second-biggest shareholder, as well as influential labor leaders at VW have been putting pressure on Winterkorn to resign from his remaining posts within the group, several people familiar with the matter have said.
Winterkorn took the position of Porsche SE CEO in 2009, shortly after the company’s planned takeover of Volkswagen failed because of ballooning debt. Working with then-Chairman Ferdinand Piech, he helped arrange a fix that gave Volkswagen the Porsche sports-car brand and solidified the families’ control over the carmaking group via the holding company.
Bloomberg contributed to this report
