Management changes at BMW

Karl Baumer

Rudolf Wiedemann

Munich. Karl Baumer (55) took over the management of BMW Welt from Rudolf Wiedemann (57) as of 1 February 2009. The functions of BMW Group Classic and BMW Welt will be combined under Baumer's leadership. Rudolf Wiedemann, who was responsible for BMW Welt for almost seven years, is now moving to BMW Group Brand Management, where he will in future be responsible for the Marketing Governance and Operations Division. His new area of work will then include trade fairs and events, market research, Corporate Identity and marketing innovations for all three of the Group's brands.

Karl Baumer has been working in various functions in the company for 27 years now. After joining the Controlling division, Baumer, who has degrees in both engineering and business management, worked initially in product marketing for the BMW 5 Series range. After this, he took over the Special Equipment business in the Marketing division before becoming Product Strategy manager. This was followed by four years as Director of Engineering at Rolls Royce. After this, Munich-born Baumer was responsible for brand, price and product strategy in Group Marketing. Since May 2007, he has been head of BMW Group Classic, which was at that time still known as BMW Group Mobile Tradition and which worked on the glorious history of the company. “With BMW Welt and BMW Group Classic, we have two important tools for brand leadership and presentation," says Karl Baumer, as he looks forward to his new task.

Rudolf Wiedemann, who was born in Augsburg, has been with the BMW Group for over 30 years, working in a wide variety of functions. Most recently, he worked for seven years in BMW Welt, including five years as BMW Welt project manager and, after the completion of the building, another two years as head of BMW Welt. Wiedemann has the following to say about his new challenge: "It is great to be able to carry over my enthusiasm for the BMW brand, which has defined my whole working life to date, to the Group's other brands."

After joining BMW, the business management graduate worked initially in various After Sales functions, including market analysis, product planning, prices planning and sales promotion. After this, Wiedemann worked for a year as head of Product Management and Sales Promotion in the After Sales division before taking over the management for the project planning and controlling of a project for systematic activation of the market in the After Sales division. This was followed by positions of managerial responsibility in Advertising and Trade Marketing for parts and accessories and Automobile Sales Training. Following this, Wiedemann was head of the Training Centre for the Germany Region for eight years, where he was also responsible for a program for improving processes in the showrooms. He was also head of Marketing for the Germany Region for a further five years. He then took over the management of the BMW Welt project in April 2002.