BMW moves brand boss to chief marketing post

BMW has promoted Jan-Christiaan Koenders to its top global marketing role as part of a major restructure.

Koenders, who was previously director of brand communications, becomes vice- president of brand management for the BMW marque and will also lead a new group-wide marketing services division.

He will report to global sales and marketing director Stefan Krause, and replaces senior vice-president for central marketing and brand management Torsten Müller-Ötvös, who will lead a new product and service management division.

As part of the changes, head of BMW Germany Wolfgang Armbrecht becomes vice-president of brand management for Mini. He takes over from Kay Segler, who will head all of BMW Group’s importer markets worldwide.

The restructure comes five months after BMW Group formed a new corporate and brand development division following a strategic review of the business (MW.co.uk, October 4, 2007). The new unit is headed by Friedrich Eichiner, who was previously director of corporate planning.

At the same time, Krause, who was the car company’s finance director, swapped jobs with sales and marketing chief Michael Ganal. A spokesman said at the time that job swaps are not unusual at BMW and are “one of the keys to our success”.

The group realignment comes as BMW UK prepares to welcome new managing director Klaus Kibsgaard, who will replace Jim O’Donnell (MW.co.uk, February 11).