BMW MD's shock departure

Staff at BMW’s Mulgrave headquarters has been informed this morning that local managing director Stavros Yallouridis has vacated the role.

"(Yallouridis) has stepped aside," explained the company's PR & Corporate Communications Manager, Piers Scott. "He's up in Munich... meeting with the senior management team -- and delivered his resignation (while) up there.

"This is something that has just been communicated to staff at the moment. Details are fairly scant... My understanding is that he has resigned, effective immediately, and we're going to have his predecessor, Guenther Seemann, who now looks after the... region as a whole... down here next week just to take us through the situation to date and what the next steps will be.

"In the meantime, our finance director... is the acting managing director. His name is Peter Duchauer. Peter is acting managing director but that’s very much a temporary, custodial role. There will be an appointment process..."

Scott was unsure of the background to the sudden change of leadership, describing the news as "a bolt from the blue".

"I would like to stress it is a resignation," he told the Bikesales Network, "but in terms of what his personal reasons for doing so are, that hasn't been communicated yet."

Scott didn't wish to speculate as to the reasons for Yallouridis leaving the company’s fold, and did describe BMW's sales figures for this year as "sound".

Furthermore, he was quick to pour cold water on rumours that relations between Yallouridis and the Australian staff were strained, despite a significant turnover of high-profile employees at the company's Melbourne facility over the past year, which included long-time motorcycle boss Cameron Cuthill.