BMW boss Oliver Zipse hands over to Milan Nedeljković
BMW chairman Oliver Zipse left the group’s top management and handed the job to Milan Nedeljković, until now the company’s production chief. Zipse spent 35 years at BMW Group, which is a long innings even by Munich standards.
A planned change at the top of BMW
BMW confirmed the handover at its 106th Annual General Meeting. Oliver Zipse gave up his role as chairman of the BMW AG Board of Management to Milan Nedeljković, in a change that came with no last minute drama. The company had already said Zipse would leave the board after the general meeting on 13 May 2026.
Zipse joined BMW in 1991 as a trainee in the development department. He later ran the MINI plant, joined the BMW AG board in 2015 and became chairman in 2019. BMW credits him with steering the group through several crises, including the coronavirus pandemic, and with shaping the Neue Klasse project, the strategic bet now carrying much of the brand’s future on its shoulders.
The new BMW chief also comes from within
Milan Nedeljković is hardly an outsider parachuted in for effect. He joined BMW in 1993 and became a member of the BMW AG Board of Management in 2019, where he took charge of production. According to BMW, his new contract as chairman runs until 2031.
The change at the top comes as the wider car industry adjusts its business model to electrification, tougher Chinese competition and trade tensions that refuse to stay politely in the background. Reuters noted that BMW’s growth hopes rest in part on the Neue Klasse generation, which is expected to play a central role in the company’s electric car strategy.
For BMW, then, this is less a palace coup than a carefully timed passing of the keys. Whether the road ahead feels as orderly is another matter.
