Former GM Europe boss Forster proposed as chair of Hella's shareholder committee

FRANKFURT -- Carl-Peter Forster, formerly head of GM Europe and a BMW veteran, has been proposed as chairman of Hella's shareholders' committee, the German supplier said in a statement.

The appointment could be confirmed at the company's annual general meeting on Sept. 27, when the term of his predecessor, Manfred Wennemer, will come to an end.

The shareholders' committee is the decision-making body of the listed company, more than 60 percent of which is family-owned.

Forster, 65, is an industry veteran with more than 35 years of experience. He began his career in 1986 with BMW where he rose to head of manufacturing before leaving the company in 2000.

In 2001, he was appointed head of Opel. He was promoted to president of Opel parent General Motors Europe three years later. Forster resigned from GM in 2009 following his criticism of the automaker for reversing a decision to sell Opel to Canadian supplier Magna International and its Russian partner Sberbank.

In 2010, he joined Tata Motors as Group CEO, where he took responsibility for the Jaguar and Land Rover brands. He resigned the position in September 2011 due to  ''unavoidable personal circumstances" though he remained on Tata's board as a non-executive member.

In 2013, Forster joined Volvo Cars' board of directors before retiring from the role earlier this year.

In May of this year, Forster joined the advisory board of Vayavision, an Israeli developer of autonomous vehicle technology that plans to expand in Europe.

Hella was founded in 1899 by Sally Windmueller and now employs 39,000 people globally, 10,000 of them in Germany. The company makes lighting, radar sensors and camera software used in the auto industry.

Hella ranks No. 42 on the Automotive News list of the top 100 global suppliers with worldwide sales to automakers of $6.8 billion in fiscal 2018.