Dusseldorf Günther Horvath is to move into the VW supervisory board and take over the vacant position on the shareholder side. That was suggested by the panel’s nomination committee, as VW announced on Friday afternoon. Horvath is to succeed Louise Kiesling, who died in December 2022.
She was the niece of the former VW patriarch Ferdinand Piëch and was considered an important moderator between the Porsche and Piëch families. Through the family holding company Porsche SE, they control both the VW Group and the sports car manufacturer Porsche.
Unlike Kiesling, Horvath is not a direct part of the Porsche-Piëch family. However, the 70-year-old lawyer is considered a close confidant of the family and one of the most important advisers for family spokesman Wolfgang Porsche on legal and strategic issues. The Austrian is also active in various foundations related to Porsche.
Horvath made a name for himself early on as a business lawyer. In 1981 he began working as a lawyer in Austria. The following year he became a partner at the top Viennese law firm Heller, Löber, Bahn & Partner, which later merged with the German law firm Bruckhaus Westrick Stegemann and finally merged with the English Magic Circle law firm Freshfields.
For more than 30 years he was a partner at the posh addresses in Vienna. The Volkswagen Group was probably his most important client. Horvath had an important say in the 2008 – ultimately unsuccessful – takeover attempt by Porsche from Volkswagen. The mandate was led by his Frankfurt Freshfields colleagues Christoph von Bülow and Thomas Bücker.
When Horvath joined the supervisory board of Holding Porsche SE in 2018, he left the partnership and set up his own law firm. Nothing has changed in his role as consigliere for the Porsche family. Horvath is to be officially elected to the Supervisory Board at the Annual General Meeting in mid-March.
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