Former CEO BMW, Bernd Pischetsrieder, is the new chairman of Daimler AG

From BMW to Mercedes
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In a surprising move, Bernd Pischetsrieder, the former CEO of BMW from 1993-1999, was appointed Chairman of Supervisory Board of Daimler AG.

The fierce rivalry between Mercedes and BMW is well known and that’s why the appointment of Bernd Pischetsrieder, the former CEO of BMW from 1993-1999, as chairman of the Daimler Supervisory Board is somehow surprising.

Bernd Pischetsrieder replaces Manfred Bischoff, who has held this position since 2007, after a successful career in management.

“It is fair to say that Manfred Bischoff has left his mark on a piece of German industrial history. This company is extremely well positioned for the future, and that is largely thanks to him,” said Ola Källenius in his speech at the virtual Annual Meeting.

Bernd Pischestrieder is a 100% Bavarian. He was born in Bavaria on February 15, 1948 and studied Mechanical Engineering at the Technical University of Munich from 1968 to 1972.

He began his career at BMW in 1973 as a Production Planning Engineer. He was CEO of BMW between 1993 and 1999.

During his tenure, Pischetsrieder acquired Rover Group from British Aerospace. The Mini brand was successfully integrated into the BMW portfolio while the Rover was a failure and was sold in 2000 for 1 euro. Also during the Pischetsrieder management, BMW acquired the Rolls-Royce brand that VW boss Ferdinand Piech also wanted.

After 2000, Pischetsrieder joined the VW Group and in April 2002 became CEO of VW AG. In May 2006, he was confirmed for another 5-year term at VW’s management, but surprisingly, only 6 months later, in November 2006, he was fired by Patriarch Ferdinand Piech, who named his favorite Martin Winterkorn.

In the samer meeting the shareholders elected Elizabeth Centoni, Chief Strategy Officer and General Manager of Applications at Cisco Systems, Inc., Ben van Beurden, CEO Royal Dutch Shell plc, and Martin Brudermüller, Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of BASF SE, to the Supervisory Board by a large majority.

They succeed Petraea Heynicke and Jürgen Hambrecht, who are also stepping down from the Supervisory Board along with Manfred Bischoff. The term of office of the newly elected members begins at the end of the Annual Meeting in 2021 and expires at the end of the Annual Meeting in 2025.