Bernd Pischetsrieder, a former VW and BMW executive, has joined Daimler AG's board.

Daimler AG has recruited a former executive from rival BMW and Volkswagen, Bernd Pischetsrieder to serve on its board of supervisors, which is responsible for the oversight of the company’s top management.

Under questioning from Daimler shareholders, Manfred Bischoff, chairman of the board of supervisors, explained that the German automaker was looking to increase the automotive expertise on the company’s supervisory board.

The 66-year-old Pischetsrieder has been a top executive at both BMW, Volkswagen AG and Scania until his retirement in 2007. Pischetsrieder does not have a consulting contract with either BMW or VW, Bischhoff added.

“There is no conflict of interest on his part,” Bischoff told Daimler shareholders in Berlin. “The only place you can get the automotive expertise or experience, we needed was from the ranks of suppliers or other auto companies,” he said.

Pischetsrieder, an engineer by training, began his automotive career at BMW in 1973 as a production planning engineer and rose quickly through the ranks to become chairman of BMW’s board of management in 1993. During his years at BMW, Pischetsrieder was instrumental initiating the enormously successful Mini brand and shored up BMW’s standing as a leader in the luxury car market with a solid sporting and engineering reputation

He left the company in 1999 after BMW’s investment in Britain’s ailing Rover Group, which he had championed, fell apart.

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Pischetsrieder joined Volkswagen AG a year later in 2000 and became chairman of the Board of Management of Volkswagen AG, the parent company of the Volkswagen Group in 2002, serving until 2006. While Volkswagen, he directed Bugatti Automobiles SAS to re-engineer the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 and played a role in the revival of Audi.

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During Pischetsrieder’s time at the helm, the Volkswagen share price rose by 80%, and his dismissal was opposed by supervisory board members, but he appeared to have differences with Ferdinand Piëch, long the decisive voice in VW’s management.

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Bischoff also announced that Bernd Bohr, the former chief executive officer of Robert Bosch Gmbh and Joseph Kaeser, the chief executive officer of Siemens AG were also nominated to serve as a management representative on the board of supervisors.

Under German law, half the members of the board of supervisors serve as representatives of the shareholders while the other half of the board represent the company’s employees, who are generally represented by union representatives.