BMW Group @ One Young World Summit Munich 2025.

Page Overview

Leadership is an attitude
– BMW at the OYW 2025

This year, Munich welcomed the One Young World Summit for the second time. With its progressive and innovative industrial base and reputation as a highly livable city, Munich provided the perfect backdrop for a convention of high-profile individuals with ambitious aims: to engage in networking and critical thinking, and develop bold ideas.

As a premium partner of this year’s summit and host of the closing ceremony at the BMW Welt, the BMW Group has been sending delegations of young, international employees to the event since 2016, with over 50 attending this year. The summit opened in the Olympic Hall, just a few steps away from the company’s headquarters, with Ilka Horstmeier, Member of the Board of Management responsible for HR and Real Estate, setting the tone. In her conversation with Munich-born Philipp Lahm – as the former captain of the German national football team and World Cup winner in 2014, Lahm is a true leader himself – she emphasized that “leadership is an attitude”. Success, she added, is worthless if it’s all about yourself. True success is about adding value for society, “because a pioneer is someone who is part of the solution”.

The key focal points at this year’s summit were education, the circular economy, responsible technology, combating hate, and peace and security. Discussing these issues with people from diverse perspectives, experiences and cultural backgrounds – who are passionate about driving change – is always inspiring and a major opportunity of this convention.

Ilka Horstmeier, Chief Human Resources and Real Estate Officer, in conversation with summit participants.

Ilka Horstmeier, Chief Human Resources and Real Estate Officer, on stage at the summit with Philipp Lahm.

Cohesion through trust.

One global issue dominated delegates’ minds at the summit: declining trust in institutions, science and democracy. Responsible leadership can be key to restoring it, “because trust is the cement that holds society together”, said Ilka Horstmeier in her panel discussion with Miguel Ángel Moratinos, High Representative for the UN Alliance of Civilisations (UNAOC), and Gabriela de la Torre, founder of PAUTA (Programa Adopta un Talento). In their inspiring debate before the OYW audience, de la Torre highlighted the role of leadership and trust in driving collective movements: “I firmly believe that good leaders are judged by whether they are the best not in the world, but for the world. Businesses, too, are judged by their contribution to society. It’s about bringing business, environmental and social responsibility together.” Horstmeier, who also mentored the BMW Group’s delegation, shared an example of how the company is helping to rebuild trust: through education as a key to positive social change.

Ilka Horstmeier at the panel discussion with Miguel Ángel Moratinos, High Representative of the UN Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC), and Gabriela de la Torre, founder of PAUTA.

Collaboration with the UNAOC.

Since 2011 the BMW Group and the United Nations Alliance of Civilisations (UNAOC) have worked together to promote intercultural dialogue and social cohesion. Their joint initiative – the Intercultural Innovation Hub (IIH) – supports organisations worldwide that advocate for diverse perspectives and equity while countering extremism. The goal is to strengthen social innovation and address global challenges collaboratively.

Guided by the motto Connect, Empower, Elevate, the IIH brings people and cultures together, strengthens grassroots initiatives and scales social innovations and their impact. It offers selected organisations financial support, a one-year capacity-building programme and access to a global leadership network.

“In a world full of tensions, division and declining trust in institutions, companies especially are reliable partners who take responsibility,” emphasised Miguel Ángel Moratinos, High Representative of the UN Alliance of Civilisations (UNAOC), in the panel discussion. “When a global corporation says, ‘We hear you, we support you, we have faith in you’, it really makes a difference,” he pointed out.

Opportunities through education.

Mexico’s PAUTA is among the organisations benefiting from the IIH. Dedicated to supporting disadvantaged children, it primarily offers lessons in STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) subjects, explained project founder Gabriela de la Torre to delegates. Many children, she added, grow up in poverty and violence, with no access to quality education. PAUTA aims to offer them the education they need, build up their self-esteem and help them understand that they are talented and have the potential to succeed. Knowledge of STEM subjects gives them the foundation to enter professions in fields that will enable them to participate in global economic growth.

Circle of Impact.

Economic success and future sustainability can go hand in hand – and an interactive summit workshop hosted by the BMW Group explored how. The circular economy is key, and participants were invited to examine how principles of circularity can be integrated into business models to conserve resources and cut CO2 emissions.

Delegates left the workshop with valuable insights: achieving a healthy balance between growth and quality of life on the one hand, and circularity and responsiveness to future needs on the other, is possible. And there are countless ways to forge new pathways.