BMW's Rolls-Royce has named a new director of engineering.

Mihiar Ayoubi takes up the role on 1 March after 20 years' experience in various engineering positions within the parent group.

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He is currently head of concepts, architectures and integration and has previously headed departments in acoustics and vibration, dynamics development, chassis control systems, drivetrain development, all wheel drive and driver assistance systems.

He is already familiar with Rolls-Royce, having been involved with the engineering concept for the redesigned Phantom.

Of Syrian descent, Ayoubi moved to Germany in 1985 to study engineering, joining BMW Group in 1997. He holds a degree and doctorate in control systems engineering and applied artificial intelligence from the technical University of Darmstadt.

Rolls-Royce CEO Torsten Muller-Otvos said: "I am delighted to welcome Ayoubi as our new director of engineering. He is an exceptionally talented engineer and follows in the esteemed footsteps of the company's founding father and first engineer, Sir Henry Royce."

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Ayoubi replaces Philip Koehn who has left the company "to pursue other interests".

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