Chief Design Officer and Executive Vice President at Hyundai Motor Company Luc Donckerwolke has abruptly left his post after four years of joining the South Korean auto giant. According to a news report, the Belgian born automotive designer left suddenly, citing personal reasons for his departure.
Luc Donckerwolke first joined the Hyundai Motor Company to head the design team of their newly created luxury marque, Genesis. He left Bentley for the job and was later joined by Lamborghini Director, Manfred Fitzgerald.
Prior to joining the Hyundai Motor Group in 2015, Donckerwolke worked for many years at the Volkswagen Group, where he was involved in the development of the Audi A2, Lamborghini Murcielago and Gallardo.
In 2012 he became head of design at Bentley and led the development of the EXP 10 Speed 6 concept car.
In 2015 he moved to Hyundai where he worked on the company’s new luxury marque – Genesis.
In 2016 he was appointed head of the Hyundai Design Center.
The report says that Mr Donckerwolke resigned to spend more time with his family in Europe. Hyundai Motor Company will soldier on without a replacement for now. In the meantime, another ex-Bentley designer who has been with the company since 2016, Sangyup Lee, will continue oversight of the Hyundai and Genesis brands’ design direction. Ex-BMW designer Karim Habib, on the other hand will continue those duties for the Kia brand.
Here’s a quick look at his design career prior to joining the Hyundai Motor Company.
- 1990 – begins design career with Peugeot in France
- 1992 – joins AudiDesign in Ingolstadt
- 1994 – leaves for Škoda in the Czech Republic
- Brief stint back at Audi
- 1998 – joins Lamborghini as head of design
- 2005 – joins SEAT design director
- 2012 – joins as Bentley’s head of design
