There’s a new boss at BMW Group New Zealand, and he’s not your typical corporate executive. Meet Francois Roca, a man whose personal story is as compelling as the performance figures of an M-car. He’s a French citizen raised in Japan, an ex-MINI owner whose passion for the brand led him to join the company, and an avid astrophotographer who thinks New Zealand might just be the best place on Earth for his hobby.
Describing his multicultural identity, Roca shares an analogy a friend once gave him: he’s like a watermelon, “green outside, red inside”. Born in France, he moved to Japan with his parents in 1972 and spent 11 years there, shaping a dual identity that has defined his global career.
The Road to a Four-Wheeled World
Roca’s journey into the automotive industry was anything but direct. His first role after his studies in France was with Eastman Kodak, where he started in the finance department crunching numbers. However, he quickly grew “bored of numbers” and was drawn to the dynamism of international business. This path eventually led to a call from Renault in late 1998, just as the landmark Renault-Nissan alliance was being formed.
Despite having a background in chemical engineering and knowing “nothing” about the car business, he spent a year training in Paris before being sent to the heart of the action in Japan, working within Nissan’s headquarters. After a successful stint there and a subsequent role with a Swiss luxury tourism company, Roca was contacted by BMW with an offer he “could not refuse”.
A Passion for the Brand
For Roca, the move to BMW Group was personal. “I’m really a Mini fan. And I joined the group because of that,” he explained, noting he was a MINI customer at the time, owning both a Cabriolet and a Cooper S. He fondly recalls his children’s reaction to seeing the car, exclaiming, “daddy, that’s a luxury car,” which helped him realise the powerful brand perception even among the uninitiated.
This passion translated into tangible success. As Head of MINI for Japan, he and his team grew the business from around 17,000 to 26,000 units over five years. His career then took him to BMW’s headquarters in Munich, Germany, where for three and a half years he oversaw a vast and diverse region stretching from South Africa to New Zealand. Following that, he returned to Japan as Executive Director of Sales for BMW, where he successfully reversed a seven-year sales decline by rebuilding network partnerships and refocusing on market needs.
Touchdown in Aotearoa
Now at the helm of BMW New Zealand, Roca is in his first few weeks on the job and is already taken with the country. He jokes that he has to “take one or two zeros off everything that I used to handle,” but notes that “the business remains the business,” with many similarities to other markets.
Beyond the business, it’s the Kiwi welcome that has made the biggest impression. “One thing that is coming from Japan, which I really realised and lost so much already, which is the warm kindness and welcome of the people that I’ve interacted with,” he says. He finds this kindness to be entirely genuine, something he has experienced everywhere from grocery shopping to simply being lost in a car park.
While he’s still in his first 100-day “honeymoon period” and not yet ready to detail future strategy, Roca’s unique background suggests a fresh perspective is on the horizon for BMW in New Zealand. And when he’s not focused on the brand, you might find him looking up. As a passionate astrophotographer, he believes New Zealand is “definitely The best place to be in the world when you have this hobby”.
A global leader with an eye for the stars, Francois Roca’s journey is one we’ll be watching with great interest.
