Volkswagen Design Gets A New Design Chief

In 2023, the Volkswagen Group's design team will be restructured. Andreas Mindt will lead the German automaker's design team beginning in February, the company announced on Monday.Mindt is currently the director of Bentley Design. He takes over for Jozef Kaban, who has been appointed as Volkswagen's creative art director.

Mindt Tobias Sühlmann has taken Mindt's place at Bentley. Kaban will develop forward-thinking mobility solutions for the Volkswagen brand as part of his new role.

Kaban

Mindt joined the Volkswagen Group in 1996, after graduating from the Pforzheim University School of Design. By 2014, he had already held several positions at Volkswagen, including working on the design of the first generation Tiguan and the exterior design of the Golf 7. From 2014 to 2021, he oversaw the redesign of Audi's exterior design, from the Audi A1 to the Audi e-tron GT, and from the Audi Q3 to the Audi Q8.

As director of Bentley Design, he was tasked with defining Bentley's new design language, which was unveiled last summer with the Bentley Batur, beginning in 2021. Kaban earned a Master of Arts in automotive design from the Royal College of Art in London, UK, after studying product and industrial design at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava, Slovakia and received a Master of Arts in automotive design from the Royal College of Art in London, UK, in 1997.

Kaban began his career at Volkswagen Design in 1993 and was involved in designing the Bugatti Veyron, among other vehicles. In 2003, he moved to Audi as head of exterior design. Kaban was Skoda design chief from 2008 to 2017.He returned to the Volkswagen brand as chief designer in 2020 after three years as designer-in-chief at two vehicle brands outside the Volkswagen Group.

Sühlmann was previously the Exterior Design head at Bentley, having joined the luxury brand in October 2021.

Sühlmann

Sühlmann has held senior design positions at McLaren, Aston Martin, Bugatti, and Volkswagen's Potsdam Design Centre, where he joined in 2005 before moving to Volkswagen Design in Wolfsburg in 2007. He worked on the Passat, Arteon, and Touareg, as well as various show cars, here. He was also involved in the design of the Batur, under Mindt's supervision.