Eurostars 2019

TITLE: Chief Financial Officer
COMPANY: BMW Group
BASED: Munich, Germany
AGE: 57
NATIONALITY: French-German

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

A lawyer who earned his doctorate in 1990, Peter joined BMW a year later and spent his entire career at the automaker in cities such as Paris, Stockholm, Brussels and Munich. Prior to his appointment as CFO in 2017, he served as head of sales steering, head of group controlling and ran the Europe sales region, excluding Germany, for five years. 

REASON FOR WINNING

Despite various headwinds including trade tariffs that diluted profitability at the company’s core automotive division, the BMW Group recorded its seventh straight year of a double-digit pretax earnings margin. Peter, who is also in charge of the key Chinese market, helped to secure a deal to acquire from local partner Brilliance the majority of their joint venture by 2022 at the latest. That makes BMW the first automaker to take advantage of more liberal rules governing foreign ownership in China.