Lighting up: Pieter Nota will turn to a new form of consumer product – automobiles – after forging his career as an international sales and marketing executive with companies like Philips, Beiersdorf and Unilever.

BMW has announced that its global sales chief Ian Robertson will step down at the end of this year, handing over to Pieter Nota who joins the German prestige car manufacturer from Dutch electronics and lighting giant Philips.

Considered one of the most powerful Brits in the automotive industry worldwide, Mr Robertson will continue to serve as a “special representative” of the BMW Group in the UK for the first half of next year while Mr Nota will join the company on January 1, taking over responsibility for sales, aftersales and the BMW brand.

Mr Robertson turns 60 in June next year, and will retire at the end of that month after 39 years in the car industry.

This includes almost two-and-a-half decades with the BMW Group, for which he has served in a variety of roles including global sales and marketing chief, chairman and chief executive of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars and managing director of BMW South Africa.

Prior to that he was a senior executive at Britain’s Rover Group, a company he joined as a graduate trainee in 1979 and for which he eventually became purchasing director in 1991 before rising to managing director of Land Rover when BMW purchased the Rover Group from British Aerospace in 1994.

Ian Robertson

He was in that position for five years, moving across to the BMW brand just before the German car-maker sold off Land Rover to Ford.

Mr Nota, 52, is currently Philips’ chief marketing officer and executive vice-president of the company’s consumer products and solutions business division (known as ‘personal health’) and has worked for the multinational lighting company since 2010, joining as chief executive of Philips Consumer Lifestyle.

The Dutch-born executive was previously on the board of management as chief marketing and innovation officer at German cosmetics giant Beiersdorf AG – best known for the Nivea skin-care brand – while earlier in his career he spent 15 years at Dutch-British transnational consumer goods company Unilever, starting as a brand manager in 1990 and rising through the ranks to marketing director and member of the executive board of Unilever Poland and Germany.

Philips describes Mr Nota as “a long-time champion of Philips’ innovation, marketing, its customers and the company culture” and highlights his “strong track record in building and leading high-performing teams”.

He is also credited with “transforming Philips Personal Health through a combination of astute portfolio decisions, clear strategic choices, more disciplined operations, a rigorous focus on performance management and an absolute commitment to a growth and performance culture”.

This has clearly impressed the top brass at BMW, who were prepared to look outside not only BMW but the entire car industry to find a new head of sales and overseer of the BMW brand.

“With Pieter Nota we are able to attain an experienced sales and marketing expert with an international profile,” said BMW AG chairman of the board of management Harald Krueger.

“I am convinced that his proven track record in innovation and transformation will continue to lead our core brand BMW and its products through the future of connected mobility.”

BMW’s chairman of the supervisory board Norbert Reithofer paid tribute to Mr Robertson, who for almost a decade on the board of management has “shaped the image and future direction of the BMW brand and the BMW i and BMW M sub-brands”.

“Even through challenging economic times, he enabled the continuous growth of the company by achieving one sales record after the other,” Dr Reithofer said.

“I would like to thank him for his accomplishments and am pleased that he will remain with the company as a BMW Group ambassador for the UK, one of our most important markets and production locations.”

By Terry Martin