Beijing Benz: Frank Deiss to become new President and CEO

Shanghai January 13 (Gasgoo.com) Frank Deiss, 47, will replace Gunter Butschek as President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Beijing Benz Automotive Co., Ltd, a joint venture between Daimler AG and Beijing Automotive Industrial Holding, effective March 1, 2011, auto.163.com reported Thursday.

Frank Deiss

Gunter Butschek, 50, on the other hand will join Airbus as Executive Vice President (EVP) Operations, and will serve as Chairman of the Board of Management of Airbus in Germany (Airbus Operations GmbH). He will take up his position on March 1, 2011 as well.

In 1984 Butschek started his career with Mercedes-Benz Headquarters (Berlin), where he had worked in a number of departments including logistics, procurement and so on. In 2005, he took over his current position as President and CEO of Bejing Benz Automotive Co., Ltd. in China. Prior to that, he was responsible for the management of Mercedes' operations in South Africa and and the manufacturing of Mercedes' Netherlands operations succeedingly.

"In the name of the entire China Executive Board, I would like to thank Guenter Butschek for his commitment and for what he has achieved during the past six years at our Daimler joint venture with Beijing Automotive Industrial Holding,” said Ulrich Walker, Daimler Northeast Asia CEO. "Under his management, we started the production of the C- and E-Class passenger cars here in China. Guenter Butschek successfully and continuously increased capacity, productivity and flexibility of the plant.”

His successor Deiss joined Daimler-Benz AG in 1984 with a degree in business administration, and had held positions in various departments. He moved to management positions in 1994 and was mainly in charge of procurement and business development. In 2005, he was appointed as the Head of Global Procurement at Mercedes-Benz Cars and Vans (PMC).