TITLE: CEO

COMPANY: Rolls-Royce

BASED: Goodwood, England

AGE: 59

NATIONALITY: German

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

Müller-Ötvös is now one of the industry’s longest serving CEOs after more than 10 years at the helm of Rolls-Royce. His appointment in 2010 came after a career in sales and marketing at Rolls-Royce parent BMW Group. This included relaunching the Mini brand. His greatest success, however, has been to remake Rolls-Royce for the modern era, carefully overseeing a range expansion to include an SUV without losing sight of the brand’s heritage.

REASON FOR WINNING

Under Müller-Ötvös, Rolls-Royce broke its global sales record again in 2019, with a volume of 5,152 cars. More important, the ultraluxury brand is consistently profitable, even this year despite production disruptions caused by the pandemic, Müller-Ötvös says. Profits are driven by well-received new models such as the Cullinan SUV and new Ghost sedan, but also by a wide-ranging personalization program. The brand’s success gave it the money to develop a new spaceframe platform, freeing it from having to adapt BMW architectures for its unique designs.