FERDINAND PIËCH

AGE: 70
OCCUPATION: VW Chairman and co-owner of Porsche
NUMBER OF TIME COVERS: 0
PREVIOUS APPEARANCES ON THE TIME 100: 0

PRO: Perhaps one of the shrewdest players among auto executives, he retained his seat at the helm of VW's board (his grandfather invented the Beetle), which he looked set to lose, and got his family-held firm Porsche a controlling stake.

CON: The government of Lower Saxony holds the second largest stake in VW, and Piëch's highhandedness could provoke it to increase its share to weaken Porsche's dominance.