BMW CEO Harald Krueger has announced that he won't be looking to sign a new contract with the company when it expires at the end of April next year.
Krueger's statement claims he wants “pursue new professional endeavours and leverage my diverse international experience for new projects and ventures”, something that leaves the automakers looking for someone to take his place by the time April rolls around.
“It has always been a true honour for me to work with this tremendous team and to set the BMW Group on a path towards a successful future during the most significant transformation of this industry,” he said.
It is said that Krueger lost the trust of BMW's board and the parties haven't been seeing eye to eye for a while now. However, whether he chose to step down on his own or was forced out is still unknown.
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The company has put out an official statement on the decision and, as expected, it's quite complimentary.
“Harald Krueger has demonstrated unwavering dedication to the BMW Group in all of the various positions he has held," Chairman of BMW’s Supervisory Board Dr Norbert Reithofer declared. "I would like to express my sincere gratitude for his great personal commitment. I have complete respect and understanding for his decision and for his further plans."
BMW has declined comment on a successor for Krueger but Reuters is reporting that potential candidates include production chief Oliver Zipse, chief financial officer Nicolas Peter and research & development board member Klaus Froehlich.
Zipse is thought to be the most likely of the three to take over as CEO, with German publication Frankfurter Allgemeine claiming to have been told as much by persons operating within the company.
BMW has announced that the matter will be discussed at a supervisory board meeting on July 18 so we aren't expecting to hear anything before then.