Torsten Müller-Ötvös

Spear’s Review

Torsten Müller-Ötvös, the former CEO of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, is bringing his automotive nous to British supercar maker McLaren; he was named to the board as a non-executive director in spring 2024. The carmaker is sure to benefit from his expertise in rejuvenating brands and transforming businesses.

Müller-Ötvös joined BMW at the age of 29 and became Rolls-Royce CEO in 2010. He retired from that role in late 2023, leaving an impressive legacy.

He previously told Spear’s: ‘When I turned up here, [Rolls-Royce] was already running well. It sold around 1,000 cars per year but was obviously seen as another automotive brand. 

‘When I joined, I held lots of interviews with private banks worldwide to find out what happens to ultra-high-net-worth individuals over time. It was extremely enlightening, even provocative for us, because one clear idea was that if we didn’t change, then we were going to lose all our potential clients in the future. They were getting far younger, more informal, more relaxed.

‘We changed the product strategy into products like Wraith, Dawn, Cullinan, Black Badge [the radically styled, more powerful versions of existing models]. Black Badge was a big leader in terms of attracting very young clients, that made a big difference over time. It wasn’t something you could do in a moment, you have to do it step by step by step. You have to do it in a very driven, concise way where you have your vision and follow it.‘