BMW Names Audi’s Van Meel to Head Performance Unit

Franciscus Van Meel

BMW AG has appointed Franciscus van Meel to take over as chair of its BMW M GmbH performance unit on Jan. 1.

Meel, 48, will succeed Friedrich Nitschke, 59, who intends to retire at the end of this year.

Meel has held several engineering and technology management positions at Volkswagen AG's Audi unit. He was managing director of Audi's Quattro GmbH affiliate from 2012 until last January. Media reports of his impending move to BMW surfaced in April.