Tobias Hase / DPA
Klaus Fröhlich, Chief Development Officer at BMW, will leave the company at the end of June
The board restructuring at the Munich automotive group BMW continues. Development director Klaus Fröhlich will not renew his contract and will retire at the end of June, reports the manager magazin exclusively. Frank Weber is said to be his successor. Weber has so far been responsible for the development of large series such as the BMW 7 Series. He previously led the development of the drive for the Ampera and Volt electric models from Opel and Chevrolet.
Klaus Fröhlich has been one of the central minds of the car company in recent years. He turns 60 in June, and board members at BMW generally retire at the age of 60. Chairman of the Supervisory Board Norbert Reithofer would still have liked to extend Fröhlich’s contract.
Tom Kirkpatrick
Frank Weber will replace Klaus Fröhlich
However, the development board had made it clear to confidants early on that he wanted to stop in summer 2020. manager magazine reported back in September that Fröhlich is likely to drop out. In addition to Zipse, he was long considered a candidate for the chair of the board.
Weber is the third new board member at BMW since Oliver Zipse took over as chair in August 2019. Ilka Horstmeier had replaced Milagros Caiña Carreiro-Andree as head of personnel at the beginning of November. Milan Nedelkovi took over from Zipse as head of production. In addition, the Supervisory Board did not fill the position of Peter Schwarzenbauer, who left in autumn 2019.