(Reuters) - For those who don't know him well, Ferdinand Piech's recent retreat from the limelight might be seen as a sign the Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) chairman was preparing to step back from leading the car-maker that aspires to be the world's biggest.

Piech didn't show up at the Detroit motor show in January and shunned the media last month at the VW group night in Geneva, an annual fixture in his calendar where Europe's largest carmaker traditionally boasts about its new products.

But even after 18 years at the helm of VW, nine of which as chief executive officer, it's wrong to assume the mastermind of VW's global expansion is tired of his work, in poor health, or on his way out, officials at the company said, although they chose not to explain his absences.

Instead, the canny strategist is expected to receive shareholder backing for a third term as chairman at the annual general meeting on Thursday, two days after he turns 75. If Piech serves out the five-year period, the balding Austrian will become the oldest-ever chairman of a listed German company.

"Piech is still the undisputed leader of VW," Helmut Becker, a former chief economist at Bayerische Motoren Werke (BMWG.DE) who now runs a consulting business in Munich, told Reuters. "He has his finger in every pie that VW management bakes."

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