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David Panton
Senior Vice President, Asia, Pacific & South Africa Region, BMW
David Panton is presently the Senior Vice President for the Region - Asia, Pacific and South Africa within the BMW Group Munich Headquarter Operations. He first started in the automotive business as an engineering student at the Land Rover, Solihull plant and after his graduation in Automotive / Mechanical Engineering and also General Business management, he progressed through the organisation to Senior Engineer level.
Within the Land Rover After-Sales division, he travelled to many parts of the world including the Middle East, Africa, Central and South America as an Export After-Sales Executive, and was later promoted to the head of this business unit as Export After-Sales Manager.
As a result of re-structuring, changes took place that created a new business development focus for Land Rover's European business activities and as part of these changes, he became the Commercial Manager responsible for the full Vehicle Sales, Service and Parts business activities in Southern Europe and after 5 successful years in this position, David was invited in 1992 to move to Lisbon, Portugal as President of the Subsidiary Company.
After BMW AG's acquisition of the Rover Group in 1994, David Panton continued to successfully lead the Rover Group business in the Portuguese market and also played a leading role in a project to integrate the BMW Business into the subsidiary.
After the sale of the Land Rover business to the Ford Motor Company in 2000 and due to his extensive Land Rover and European experience, he was invited to join this new organisation as Director of European Operations. However, in 2001 he was once again invited to return to the BMW Group as the President of the BMW and Mini subsidiary based in Stockholm, Sweden reporting to the Senior Vice President of Region Europe in Munich.
Due to changes in the Munich BMW AG HQ organisation in 2002 (just one year later) David was promoted and moved to Munich to manage the BMW and Mini European business as Senior Vice President for the European Region.
In this position, he directly reported to BMW AG's Board Member for Sales & Marketing and was also member of the Management Board of all 15 European BMW subsidiaries.
After more than 4 successful years in this position and in order to gain more international market experience, he changed sales region in January 2007 to become the Senior Vice President of the Region Asia, Pacific, Middle East, Eastern Europe, Caribbean and Africa and again is a Board Member in all the respective subsidiaries in this region.
In addition to a successful career in the Automotive business, David has also been involved in several successful projects to develop many types of Trade between the UK and export markets, in particular Portugal.
In recognition for this work, in 1999 David was awarded the O.B.E. (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace for "Services to the Development of Trade".
Within the Land Rover After-Sales division, he travelled to many parts of the world including the Middle East, Africa, Central and South America as an Export After-Sales Executive, and was later promoted to the head of this business unit as Export After-Sales Manager.
As a result of re-structuring, changes took place that created a new business development focus for Land Rover's European business activities and as part of these changes, he became the Commercial Manager responsible for the full Vehicle Sales, Service and Parts business activities in Southern Europe and after 5 successful years in this position, David was invited in 1992 to move to Lisbon, Portugal as President of the Subsidiary Company.
After BMW AG's acquisition of the Rover Group in 1994, David Panton continued to successfully lead the Rover Group business in the Portuguese market and also played a leading role in a project to integrate the BMW Business into the subsidiary.
After the sale of the Land Rover business to the Ford Motor Company in 2000 and due to his extensive Land Rover and European experience, he was invited to join this new organisation as Director of European Operations. However, in 2001 he was once again invited to return to the BMW Group as the President of the BMW and Mini subsidiary based in Stockholm, Sweden reporting to the Senior Vice President of Region Europe in Munich.
Due to changes in the Munich BMW AG HQ organisation in 2002 (just one year later) David was promoted and moved to Munich to manage the BMW and Mini European business as Senior Vice President for the European Region.
In this position, he directly reported to BMW AG's Board Member for Sales & Marketing and was also member of the Management Board of all 15 European BMW subsidiaries.
After more than 4 successful years in this position and in order to gain more international market experience, he changed sales region in January 2007 to become the Senior Vice President of the Region Asia, Pacific, Middle East, Eastern Europe, Caribbean and Africa and again is a Board Member in all the respective subsidiaries in this region.
In addition to a successful career in the Automotive business, David has also been involved in several successful projects to develop many types of Trade between the UK and export markets, in particular Portugal.
In recognition for this work, in 1999 David was awarded the O.B.E. (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace for "Services to the Development of Trade".
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