Photo: BMW
German carmaker BMW announced on Thursday that Oliver Zipse will be replacing former executive Harald Krüger as chairman of the management board. The German national will assume office on August 16. One day prior to that, Krüger will resign and leave the company, at his own request.
Zipse is a long-time BMW executive. He has been on the carmaker's management board since 2015 and is currently the head of the production division.
His career at BMW started in 1991 when he joined the Bavarians as a trainee. In the years that followed he climbed the corporate ladder and became managing director of the Oxford plant and then senior vice president in charge with corporate planning and product strategy.
His appointment to the position of chairman was decided earlier this week in the U.S., at the Spartanburg facility in South Carolina.
“With Oliver Zipse, a decisive strategic and analytical leader will assume the Chair of the Board of Management of BMW AG," said in a statement Norbert Reithofer, chairman of the company's supervisory board, the other major entity running BMW.
"He will provide the BMW Group with fresh momentum in shaping the mobility of the future.”
As for the reasons why Kruger decided to end his career at BMW, they are still unknown. The German only said when he announced his decision at the beginning of July that he will not seek another term in office because he wants to "pursue new professional endeavors."
Kruger is the main name behind BMW's current product strategy. Called NUMBER ONE > NEXT, it is meant to bring the nameplate into a new era of electric motoring by launching a total of 25 electrified vehicles by the middle of the next decade.
Whereas Kruger was responsible for devising the strategy, Zipse will thus be the man in charge of seeing it through.
His career at BMW started in 1991 when he joined the Bavarians as a trainee. In the years that followed he climbed the corporate ladder and became managing director of the Oxford plant and then senior vice president in charge with corporate planning and product strategy.
His appointment to the position of chairman was decided earlier this week in the U.S., at the Spartanburg facility in South Carolina.
“With Oliver Zipse, a decisive strategic and analytical leader will assume the Chair of the Board of Management of BMW AG," said in a statement Norbert Reithofer, chairman of the company's supervisory board, the other major entity running BMW.
"He will provide the BMW Group with fresh momentum in shaping the mobility of the future.”
As for the reasons why Kruger decided to end his career at BMW, they are still unknown. The German only said when he announced his decision at the beginning of July that he will not seek another term in office because he wants to "pursue new professional endeavors."
Kruger is the main name behind BMW's current product strategy. Called NUMBER ONE > NEXT, it is meant to bring the nameplate into a new era of electric motoring by launching a total of 25 electrified vehicles by the middle of the next decade.
Whereas Kruger was responsible for devising the strategy, Zipse will thus be the man in charge of seeing it through.
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