Eberhard von Kuenheim

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Eberhard von Kuenheim
Born	(1928-10-02) 2 October 1928 (age 96) Juditten, East Prussia, Germany
Nationality	German
Occupation(s)	CEO, BMW (1970 - 1993)
Known for	being the Chairman of the Executive Board of BMW, 1970–1993
Predecessor	Gerhard Wilcke
Successor	Bernd Pischetsrieder
Children	Hendrik von Kuenheim, general director of BMW Motorrad[1]

Dr.-Ing. E.h. Eberhard von Kuenheim (born 2 October 1928) is a German industrial manager. He was Chairman of the executive board (effectively CEO) of the BMW Group, between 1970^[2] and 1993.

Kuenheim was born in Juditten (Polish: Judyty) near Bartenstein, (East Prussia). His father died of a riding accident in 1935,^[3][4] his mother died in a Soviet NKVD camp after World War II.^[3][5]

Kuenheim fled the advancing Red Army in early 1945 and was evacuated via Pillau to Western Germany in March 1945 throughout the Operation Hannibal.^[3]

He studied mechanical engineering until 1954 at the Technical University of Stuttgart^[6] and joined the Quandt Group, BMW's largest shareholder since 1959, in 1965.^[3]

On 1 January 1970, Kuenheim became the CEO of the BMW Group. When Kuenheim became CEO, BMW had 23,000 employees; when he left the post in 1993, the number had risen to 71,000.^[7] Kuenheim "transformed BMW from a small, unfocused manufacturer of cars and motorcycles into a world performance luxury icon".^[8]

After Bernd Pischetsrieder followed him as CEO, Kuenheim guided BMW's supervisory board until 1999. Today Kuenheim is the head of BMW's Eberhard-von-Kuenheim-Foundation. He is also an Honorary Senator of the Technical University of Munich, which named a building at the mechanical engineering faculty after him.

• Eberhard von Kuenheim in the German National Library catalogue
• www.kuenheim-stiftung.de