Helmut Panke was Chief Executive and Chairman of the Management Board of BMW AG until 2006.

He spent nearly 25 years at BMW, rising through the ranks of the German automaker which today has a market value of $40 billion, sales of $67 billion, and 106,000 employees. He began his business career as a consultant at McKinsey & Company. Mr Panke currently serves as an independent director on the boards of Microsoft Corp., UBS AG, and Bayer AG.