McLaren Widens Whitmarsh Role
McLaren F1 team chief executive Martin Whitmarsh has been handed additional responsibilities within the McLaren Group following a management reshuffle in the wake of Sir Richard Lapthorne’s departure as non-executive chairman.
The recent spin-off of McLaren Automotive from the McLaren Group, and Lapthorne’s decision to resign after just one year, has led to the restructuring, which sees former F1 team leader Ron Dennis resume his role as executive chairman of McLaren Group as well as continuing in the same role within McLaren Automotive.
Whitmarsh, meanwhile, has been appointed as CEO of the McLaren Group and deputy chairman of McLaren Automotive. Neither role will affect his position as team principal of the F1 outfit, which took its second win of the 2010 season courtesy of Jenson Button in China at the weekend.
Commented Dennis: ‘Following the spin-off of McLaren Automotive from McLaren Group, I’m delighted to announce this management restructure. The two companies will have separate shareholdings, and will continue to be headquartered in Woking.
‘McLaren Group will be based at the existing McLaren Technology Centre, while McLaren Automotive will be based at the brand-new McLaren Production Centre, which is now being constructed alongside the MTC.
‘I have enormous confidence in the senior management teams of both McLaren Group and McLaren Automotive, and am pleased that both companies will be extremely well served by those senior management teams, now and going forward into the future.’
McLaren Racing’s Jonathan Neale and McLaren Marketing’s Ekrem Sami, amongst others, will contonue in their roles as managing director of their respective companies under the McLaren Group umbrella. Antony Sheriff will continue as MD of McLaren Automotive.
