Luxury automaker BMW said today that CEO Norbert Reithofer will leave his post early to become chairman of the board as part of "generational change" at the top of the German automaker.
The company said that he would be replaced as CEO by BMW production executive Harald Krueger.
Reithofer has headed the company since 2006 and has seen it through steady profits, strong margins and expansion of its business in China.
Krueger joined BMW as a trainee in 1992 and worked his way through several top jobs. He was responsible for the company's MINI brand and its motorcycles before becoming production chief in 2013. He has also been project engineer for the plant in Spartanburg, South Carolina, in the 1990s and director of engine production at Hams Hall in the UK.
The Munich-based company said in a statement that Reithofer will replace board chairman Joachim Milberg at the shareholder meeting on May 13.
