FRANKFURT, Germany — Volkswagen has confirmed chief financial officer Hans Dieter Poetsch will become board chairman as the automaker faces a scandal over cars that were equipped to cheat on U.S. government emissions tests.
Poetsch, 64, has been the company’s CFO since 2003. The company said he would be appointed to the board and then elected chairman.
The board also said in a statement Thursday that it was postponing a special shareholders’ meeting scheduled for Nov. 9.
The board said that an investigation into the firm’s conduct carried out by law firm Jones Day will take “at least several months” and would not be completed for the meeting.
That meant the company would not be ready to provide “well-founded” answers to shareholders’ questions.
The decisions were made during seven hours of “intense discussions” at a board meeting Wednesday evening.
Volkswagen also named a five-member board committee that is to monitor the progress of the investigation into how cars were equipped with software that turned on emission controls during official testing but turned them off them during ordinary driving.
The committee will be headed by the current acting board chairman, Berthold Huber. Huber is the former head of the IG Metall industrial workers’ union.
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