• Rolls-Royce Motor Cars pronounces the retirement of its Director of Manufacturing, Johann (‘Hans’) Wolf, concluding his extremely distinguished 46-year profession with BMW Group
• Director of Engineering, Dr Mihiar Ayoubi, is promoted to Senior Vice President function inside BMW Group following profitable introduction of Spectre, with pathway set for future electrification
• Both go away a permanent legacy of innovation, progress and achievement, culminating within the growth and launch of Spectre
• Engineering groups for upcoming and future merchandise will probably be led from 1 January 2024 by new Director of Engineering Dr Bernhard Dressler, who beforehand led the Ghost challenge staff
• New Director of Manufacturing will probably be Gunther Böhner, who will lead the marque’s extension plans and new manufacturing capabilities from 1 January 2024

“In their respective time at Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, both Hans and Mihiar have had a substantial impact on our business. As our Director of Engineering, Mihiar has driven pivotal advances in our powertrain, suspension and software technologies, harmonising physical engineering practices with advanced digital systems. He developed solutions to the increasingly complex challenges presented by Bespoke and Coachbuild commissions and oversaw the development of Spectre – a towering technical achievement that spearheads a bold electric future for Rolls-Royce. As the marque’s Director of Manufacturing, Hans led Rolls-Royce manufacturing through landmark launches including Ghost and Cullinan, the marque’s most highly sought-after models. With the introduction of Spectre, Hans embraced and mastered the challenge of manufacturing the first-ever all‑electric Rolls-Royce. Both Hans and Mihiar will be greatly missed by all at Goodwood and the global Rolls-Royce team, but I know that their carefully chosen successors will bring their own immense wealth of expertise to these crucial and prestigious senior leadership roles, as the marque embarks on the next chapter of its storied history.”
Chris Brownridge, Chief Executive Officer, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars

Rolls-Royce Motor Cars has at this time introduced two adjustments to its senior management staff.

Hans Wolf will retire from his function of Director of Manufacturing, concluding a outstanding 46‑12 months profession with BMW Group.

Director of Engineering, Dr Mihiar Ayoubi, has been promoted to a Senior Vice President function inside BMW Group after six years on the Home of Rolls-Royce.

Both will formally hand over to their respective successors on 1 January 2024, with Gunther Böhner taking on from Hans and Dr Bernhard Dressler succeeding Mihiar.

ENGINEERING: PART OF THE BRAND’S DNA

Rolls-Royce’s co-founders, The Hon. Charles Stewart Rolls and Sir Henry Royce, had very totally different characters and backgrounds, however have been each extremely expert, fastidious and progressive engineers. Almost 120 years later, engineering stays one of many three foundational pillars – along with design and craftsmanship – of the Rolls-Royce philosophy and model.

During his six years at Rolls-Royce, Dr Mihiar Ayoubi led the engineering groups answerable for Ghost, Cullinan and Spectre; he additionally oversaw the specialist groups creating complicated, progressive and extremely Bespoke applied sciences for the Boat Tail and Droptail Coachbuild tasks.

Under Mihiar’s management, the engineering division at Rolls-Royce Motor Cars laid the foundations for the marque’s all-electric future, creating the drivetrain, battery, chassis and ‘Decentralised Intelligence’ management methods for Spectre. Engineering has additionally reasserted its central significance in delivering future Coachbuild commissions by means of the ground-breaking technical work undertaken on each Boat Tail and Droptail.

With Mihiar’s promotion, total accountability for persevering with that very important and prestigious work now passes to Dr Bernhard Dressler, who’s at present Head of Product Concept at BMW Group. Bernhard is already well-known to many at Rolls-Royce, as he beforehand led the challenge staff for Ghost. Bringing a wealth of information and expertise of the marque’s tradition and enterprise mannequin to his new place, Bernhard is ideally positioned to construct on the agency foundations laid by his predecessor.

Mihiar’s promotion, to Senior Vice President Driving Experience for BMW Group, is the newest step in a distinguished engineering profession with the corporate that started in 1997, after gaining a Degree and Doctorate in Control Systems Engineering and Applied Artificial Intelligence from the Technical University of Darmstadt in Germany.

At BMW Group, Mihiar headed departments in acoustics and vibration, dynamics growth, chassis management methods, drivetrain growth, all-wheel drive and driver help methods, earlier than taking up the senior function of Head of Concepts, Architectures and Integration. He was promoted to Rolls-Royce Motor Cars in 2018, having already been concerned with the engineering idea for Phantom 8.

MANUFACTURING: TURNING VISIONS IN REALITY

The Home of Rolls-Royce at Goodwood is the one place on the planet the place Rolls-Royce motor automobiles are designed and hand-built, all of them to order and all incorporating Bespoke parts.

Hans joined Rolls-Royce Motor Cars in November 2018. During his five-year tenure as Director of Manufacturing, he oversaw the launch of Ghost and Cullinan, respectively essentially the most technologically superior Rolls-Royce ever made and essentially the most in-demand mannequin within the marque’s modern product portfolio. Hans additionally took on the problem of producing Spectre, the primary all-electric Rolls-Royce ever created – a problem he and his staff have mastered, with the primary collection manufacturing Spectres being handed over to their new house owners in simply the previous few weeks.

Hans’ tenure as Director of Manufacturing included the highest-ever output within the marque’s historical past, with over 6,000 hand-built, bespoke motor automobiles produced in a single 12 months. In 2020, he led the staff that made Rolls‑Royce the primary UK producer to restart motor automotive manufacturing after the lifting of coronavirus restrictions.

His retirement marks the tip of a profession with BMW Group that spans greater than 4 many years. Starting out in 1977 as an apprentice, he went on to carry plenty of senior manufacturing roles: previous to becoming a member of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars in 2018, he was answerable for integrating all new merchandise into BMW Group’s largest European manufacturing plant at Dingolfing, in Bavaria.

In late summer time 2023, Rolls-Royce submitted plans to increase the Goodwood plant. The principal purpose is so as to add enhanced capabilities to ship shoppers’ more and more bold Bespoke and Coachbuild commissions. Hans performed a key function in creating the plans, making use of his lengthy expertise gained on tasks together with the unconventional reconfiguration of the Goodwood plant in readiness for Spectre and future fashions.

Taking these new growth plans ahead will probably be his successor, Gunther Böhner, who has held a wide range of senior manufacturing roles inside BMW Group in a profession spanning greater than 25 years. From 1998 to 2013, he labored throughout planning, meeting, logistics and high quality administration in Germany, then transferred to the MINI plant in Oxford – first as General Manager, then Director of Assembly. Gunther is well-known to many at Rolls-Royce, having labored on plenty of joint tasks between Goodwood and the BMW plant at Dingolfing, the place he’s at present Director of Assembly. Gunther’s expertise each with Rolls-Royce and of working within the UK equip him completely to construct on the excellent outcomes Hans and his staff have delivered.