Scheele was born in Brentwood, Essex, the elder son of Werner J. Scheele and his wife Norah. He was educated at Brentwood School before reading at St Cuthbert's Society, Durham University. Following graduation, he joined the Ford Motor Company and began a career that would take him through several major European and global roles.
Fluency in German, French, and Spanish proved central to his effectiveness in international assignments, particularly as European operations required close coordination with German engineering centres and French supply chains.
Scheele rose to lead Ford of Europe as its chairman, overseeing a regional operation that encompassed manufacturing, sales, and the management of prestige marques acquired during Ford's acquisition of British and European brands in the 1980s and 1990s. He subsequently served as Chief Executive of Jaguar Cars while it remained a Ford subsidiary, a period during which Jaguar maintained a presence in Formula One through the Jaguar Racing team — a Ford-funded F1 project operational from 2000 to 2004.
Managing Jaguar during this era meant navigating the commercial and reputational stakes of Formula One involvement, where the team competed under the Jaguar name with backing from Ford's Premier Automotive Group. The team's performance was inconsistent, and Scheele's broader corporate role placed him within the executive layer that eventually decided to withdraw the Jaguar Racing entry and sell it to Red Bull in 2004.
From 2001 to 2005, Scheele served as President of the Ford Motor Company, and simultaneously as its Chief Operating Officer from 2001 to 2004. These were among the most senior executive roles in the global automotive industry. He sat at the apex of a company that was simultaneously managing mainstream volume brands, luxury marques, and competition programmes at the highest levels of international motorsport.
During his tenure, Ford's competition-related decisions included the continued investment in — and eventual divestiture of — its motorsport subsidiaries. The commercial rationale for maintaining factory-backed racing teams was regularly reviewed at the executive level Scheele occupied.
Beyond the automotive industry, Scheele served as Chancellor of the University of Warwick from March 2002 to July 2008. He was a vocal supporter of closer ties between industry and academia, arguing that private funding from companies and individuals would increasingly complement government support for higher education.
He chaired the manufacturing group of Foresight 2020, a UK government programme designed to identify future national needs and strengthen connections between industry, science, and government. He also served as chairman of the Prince of Wales Business and Environment Committee and became a Non-Executive Director of British American Tobacco in February 2005.
Scheele was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG) in 2001 in recognition of his services to British exports. The honour reflected his role in managing and promoting British automotive brands — including Jaguar and Ford of Europe — on an international stage.
Nick Scheele died on 18 July 2014 at the age of 70.
Scheele represented a generation of British business executives who shaped the fate of iconic domestic marques during their absorption into American automotive conglomerates. His stewardship of Jaguar during the Ford era and his senior roles at Ford's global headquarters placed him at the intersection of corporate strategy and the motorsport-adjacent decisions — including Formula One team ownership — that defined that period. The Jaguar Racing chapter he presided over remains one of the most scrutinised examples of a manufacturer entering and exiting Formula One for brand rather than purely competitive purposes.