Bosch appoints new Automotive Aftermarket board chairman

After seven years as chairman of the Automotive Aftermarket Divisional Board at Robert Bosch GmbH, Robert Hanser is stepping down on 30 June. The company says he is doing so due to his age. From 1 July, Hanser will join the Bosch Management Support GmbH board of management, a body of senior experts who act in an advisory capacity for Bosch across the world.

Leadership of the Automotive Aftermarket Divisional Board will be taken on by Dr. Uwe Thomas as of 1 July. The 56-year old, whose career at Bosch spans some 24 years, has been chairman of the Divisional Board of Robert Bosch Car Multimedia GmbH since March 2006. After studying Business Studies and receiving his doctorate at the University of Mannheim, he joined Bosch’s Automotive Aftermarket division in 1989 as department manager for product management of trade products. After holding several positions in the division in Paris and working as director of Exports, at the start of 2001 he joined the board of Robert Bosch AG, Vienna, where he was responsible for the retail sales division in Central and Eastern Europe. In 2003, he was appointed sole director of the Austrian Bosch subsidiary, a role he held for approximately three years.

Under Robert Hanser’s leadership, Bosch’s Automotive Aftermarket division underwent a fundamental change in strategy from a pure trading company to a comprehensive systems provider for the global workshop market. The diagnostics division was expanded and production sites were also set up worldwide to manufacture parts for the workshop market. Today, the Bosch division has a turnover of over 5 billion euros and employs around 17,000 people at 150 locations worldwide.