Hyundai Hires Another BMW M Exec To Run Its Performance Division

Hyundai has set up a new performance division and hired a top man from BMW M GmbH to run it. Sound familiar? That’s what the Korean automaker did in 2015 when it hired Albert Biermann to spearhead its new N department. Now it’s done it again.

This time it’s Thomas Schemera’s, a longtime BMW sales and marketing executive, who’s been picked up by Hyundai. A German native and mechanical engineer by training, Schemera has worked for BMW since 1987, most recently as head of BMW M and BMW Individual for the Americas. Before that, he held similar roles in Germany and China.

Now he’s been tapped to run a newly formed High Performance Vehicle & Motorsport Division at Hyundai. As its executive vice president, he’ll oversee not only sales and marketing for the division, but also its strategy and product planning. That’ll see him working closely with his old colleague Biermann and design chief Peter Schreyer (a fellow German brought over from Audi in 2006) – both group presidents.

The Korean giant also recently poached former BMW M man Pierre Leclerq to head Kia’s design department. Before that, it brought designers Luc Donckerwolke and Alexander Selipanov over from the VW group, and more recently hired BMW platform engineer Fayez Abdul Rahman to run its Genesis architecture development.

“Thomas Schemera is one of the most renowned experts in the high performance vehicle business with experience in all of the world’s major markets,” said Biermann. “I am excited he is joining us and I’m confident that his participation will help put Hyundai’s high performance vehicle business onto the fast track.”

We’ll have to wait and see just what Schemera will do in his new role, but his arrival bodes well for the Korean automaker and the expansion of its performance-vehicle portfolio. The company recently launched the i30 N hot hatch in Europe and the Veloster N in North America, and you can bet that the coming years will see more performance models from the expanding Hyundai Group.