Williams chief executive officer Alex Burns has left the company “with immediate effect”.
Burns was chief operating officer at Williams until 2010, when he was promoted to the role formerly occupied by Adam Parr.
Mike O’Driscoll, who has been on the Williams board since 2011, has taken on the new role of Group CEO as of today.
O’Driscoll was managing director of Jaguar Cars from 2007 to 2011 and president of Aston Martin Jaguar Land Rover in North America for six years before that.
“Mike has been a valued member of our board since 2011 as a non-executive director and I am delighted that his day to day involvement in the company is to significantly increase,” said team owner Frank Williams.
“This new role strengthens the company and will help us achieve our goals both on the race track and in diversification. Mike brings with him significant skills and a wealth of experience. Working with [deputy team principal] Claire [Williams], I am in no doubt that the future of Williams is in safe hands.”
O’Driscoll said he is “very much looking forward to helping Sir Frank and Claire achieve the ambitious goals we have set ourselves”.
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Image © Williams/LAT
GeeMac (@geemac)
29th May 2013, 13:46
3 hours and there has not been a single comment on this article, a sad reflection on the status of Williams these days.
HS
29th May 2013, 14:21
As far as I’m concerned, the moment Juan Pablo Montoya left Williams, they were considered a non-entity.
Skett (@skett)
29th May 2013, 14:25
tbh I suspect that for the majority of people they just don’t care about who the CEO is
beneboy (@beneboy)
29th May 2013, 16:30
@geemac
Imagine going back to the 80’s or early 90’s and telling a group of F1 fans that after 6 rounds of the championship Minardi (Torro Rosso) would have 12 points while Williams had none – you’d be laughed out of the building !
dot_com (@dot_com)
29th May 2013, 17:05
Very sad indeed.
GeeMac (@geemac)
30th May 2013, 6:13
@beneboy And that they would have won the same number of races between 2005 and 2013!
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
30th May 2013, 4:03
I hope all the best for Williams, they have the best values in this sport and if by any chance they are forced to withdraw more of their independence I think it will be a major let down for the sport because if Williams can’t handle the world of F1 no honest or self sufficient team can. I hope they’ll survive this season.
Fernando Cruz
31st May 2013, 12:30
Williams needed more stability and an engineer like Mark Gillan was a very good asset. He should never leave the team but maybe he became upset about how things were being done. Bruno Senna was also a good asset and maybe this year’s car would be better if he (and Gillan) had been retained. He had already some experience and his technical feedback was really good. Bottas may have more long term potential (like Mika Hakkinen V Damon Hill) but he’s a rookie. Also Bruno could mean more money, leading to more resources and more investment on development. But the team (or Toto Wolff?) made a choice and the result is a bad car and 0 points…