DaimlerChrysler SA’s management board chairman, Christoph Köpke, will become the head of the manufacturer’s sales division in Germany from the beginning of next month.
DaimlerChrysler SA’s (DCSA) management board chairman, Christoph Köpke, will become the head of the manufacturer’s sales division in Germany from the beginning of next month.
The announcement is the latest in recent personnel changes at the highest levels of South African manufacturers. Ian Robertson, the managing director of BMW SA, was last month named chairman and chief executive of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars and Deborah Coleman, the chief executive and group managing director of the Ford Motor Company of SA, returns to the US and will be replaced by Robert Graziano.
CARtoday.com reported on Monday that Nissan SA director of sales and marketing Mike Whitfield would join Nissan Europe from the beginning of next year to head up sales and marketing operations in Scandinavia.
Köpke will replace Eckhard Panka, who will be retiring at the end of this month, as management board chairman of DaimlerChrysler Vertriebsgesellschaft in Berlin. The division is said to manage sales of Mercedes-Benz, Maybach, Chrysler, Jeep and Smart on the German market.
His successor in South Africa will be Hansgeorg Niefer, who has headed Mercedes-Benz passenger car production at DaimlerChrysler’s East London plant since 2002.
Köpke has been chairman of the board of management of DCSA since 1989 and has, since 1972, advanced through all the levels of sales organisation for passenger cars and commercial vehicles. He also served on the board of DaimlerChrysler Financial Services in South Africa.
