He is also the chief executive officer of Jaguar Land Rover, which has seen a remarkable turnaround since he took charge on February 18, 2010.
Following a degree in economics engineering from Rosenheim University, Germany, he earned a doctorate in engineering. He is also an industrial professor at the University of Warwick.
In the course of his career, Dr Speth worked as a business consultant for a number of years before joining BMW in 1980. He moved to Ford's Premier Automotive Group when BMW sold Land Rover to Ford in 2000. After a stint as head of global operations at the German international industrial gases and engineering company Linde Group, he returned to Jaguar Land Rover when the Tata group acquired the company.