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TITLE: Board Member for People and Real Estate; Labor Relations Director
COMPANY: BMW Group
BASED: Munich 
AGE: 54
NATIONALITY: German

CAREER HIGHLIGHTS

Ilka Horstmeier, a native of Duisberg, Germany, holds a degree in business administration from Saarland University in Saarbrucken. She has worked at BMW Group her entire career, starting in 1995 as a trainee. Key management positions include head of strategy development, production concepts; head of engine production, Munich; and senior vice president production and planning, engines and electric powertrain. In the latter post, starting in 2010 Horstmeier was head of engine production, spearheading the companywide initiative “Future employment structures” in the following years. In 2018 she was named managing director of BMW's factory in Dingolfing, Germany, and since 2019 she has been a member of the board of management, with responsibility for people and real estate, as well as labor relations director.

REASONS FOR WINNING

Diversity, equity, inclusion: Companies across the automotive industry and, indeed, in every sector, are discovering the importance of fostering an environment where every employee has the chance to live up to their potential. For BMW, ensuring this is just one part of the overall transformation to a more sustainable and more connected way of working.

As the board member overseeing human resources, among other areas, Horstmeier has been essential in enabling the shift toward production of electric cars within BMW, continuously delivering reskilling opportunities and thereby future-proofing individual employees as well as the entire company.
Horstmeier has also made efforts to reorganize essential processes in a more human-centric way. Without losing sight of the needs of employees and managers, she leverages digitalization to simplify and streamline processes, ultimately benefitting not only individual actors but the entire BMW Group. BMW was also recently recognized for its progress in diversity and equality, attaining the highest certification from Fair Pay Innovation Lab as the first Germany company to do so. The award signifies that there are “no significant difference between the overall remuneration packages of women and men.”