BMW extends CEO Oliver Zipse's contract until 2026, names new sales boss

BMW Group has extended the contract of CEO Oliver Zipse until 2026, and has named Jochen Goller, currently head of China, to the Board of Management, responsible for customer, brands and sales, replacing Pieter Nota.

Zipse, 59, has been chairman of the Supervisory Board and CEO since August 2019. Significant achievements under his watch include the introduction of a range of electric vehicles, including the iX and i4; taking the premium sales crown from Mercedes-Benz in 2021; and development of the Neue Klasse EV platform, which will start production in 2025.

His contract would normally have ended at age 60, in 2024, but the board has suspended that requirement and extended his contract by two years, Automobile News Europe sister publication Automobilwoche said.

Zipse, a native of Heidelberg, Germany, has a degree in mechanical engineering from Technical University of Darmstadt. He joined BMW in 1991 as a trainee, then held management positions in engineering and production, in Munich, South Africa and the U.K.

In 2012 he was named senior vice president, corporate planning and product strategy, and in 2015 became a member of the Board of Management for production. 

Goller, 56, has been with BMW since 1999, working in the U.K. and China in management positions, including as head of marketing in China from 2004-09, and then as head of the Mini brand in the U.K. and globally. He was named head of BMW’s joint venture with Brilliance in China in 2015, and head of the overall China region in March 2018.

China is BMW’s largest individual market, with nearly 800,000 sales in 2022.

“With Jochen Goller, we are appointing an internationally experienced sales manager to the Board of Management and a proven China expert who knows the BMW Group's largest market like no other,” Norbert Reithofer, chairman of the Supervisory Board, said in a statement Thursday.

Nota, 59, will step down on Oct. 31. The native of Wageningen, the Netherlands, holds a degree in business administration from Erasmus University in Rotterdam. He started his career at Unilever and worked there until 2005, when he moved to Beiersdorf, and then Philips in 2010. At Philips, he was named a member of the Board of Management in 2011.

In 2018 Nota joined BMW as board member in charge of sales and the BMW brand, as well as group after sales; in 2019 his responsibilities were expanded to include group sales, including Mini and Rolls-Royce. He was also named non-executive chairman at Rolls-Royce.

BMW achieved record sales of 2.5 million in 2019 under Nota, and the automaker said that it was on pace to equal or exceed this mark in 2023.