Albert Biermann, who was the former vice president of engineering at BMW’s M division, has moved to Hyundai to look into the testing and development operations for high-performance Hyundai and Kia models planned for global markets in 2016.

He will join Hyundai on April 1, 2015, and will be based at the company’s R&D centre in South Korea. Biermann will supervise engineering projects relating to ride and handling, safety, reliability and NVH (noise, vibration, harshness).

Biermann has been at BMW since 1983, and has, more recently, been involved in the development of the latest generation M3, M4, M5 and M6.

Dirk Haecker will fill the position vacated by Biermann at BMW's M division. The former suspension engineer and chassis set-up expert currently heads the German car maker’s driver training operations.