FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Three new representatives of the Porsche and Piech family will take seats on the supervisory board of Porsche Automobil Holding (>> Porsche), the company said on Friday, handing responsibility for Volkswagen oversight to a younger generation.
Porsche Automobil Holding SE, which controls a 52.2 percent voting stake in Volkswagen, the world's largest carmaker, said its board of directors would be extended from six to 10 members, allowing some fourth-generation members of the clan to gain a seat.
Hans-Peter Porsche, a grandson of VW Beetle designer Ferdinand Porsche, will resign from the supervisory board, and hand control to Josef Michael Ahorner, Stefan Piëch and Peter Daniell Porsche, the company said.
Auto industry analyst Philippe Houchois from Jeffries said adding new blood could help spur change.
"We believe these changes are important as they clearly maintain a balance of influence among families and they are essential to Porsche SE establishing new leadership and, eventually we think, becoming an agent of change," he said.
Governance at Porsche and Volkswagen was for decades marked by an in-house rivalry between the two clans. Porsche Automobil Holding SE Chairman Wolfgang Porsche has worked to keep relations between the two families harmonious.
Of the new appointments, Ahorner is founder and chairman of the supervisory board of the marketing platform Emarsys AG while Stefan Piech, son of Hans Michel Piech, is director of media company Your Family Entertainment AG, Munich.
Peter Daniell Porsche is the owner of the holding company PDP Holding GmbH, Salzburg, the company said.
The fourth generation family members will sit on the Porsche Automobil Holding board alongside Wolfgang Porsche, Hans Michel Piech, Ferdinand Oliver Porsche and Hans-Peter Porsche.
Some clan members including Luise Kiesling, Hans Michel Piech, Ferdinand Oliver Porsche and Wolfgang Porsche also sit on the supervisory board of separately listed Volkswagen AG.
(This story has been corrected in paragraph 4 to say Stefan Piech is the son of Hans Michel Piech, not Ferdinand Piech)
(Reporting by Edward Taylor; Editing by David Evans and Edmund Blair)
