Hyundai’s design chief Luc Donckerwolke resigns

Hyundai’s design chief Luc Donckerwolke resigns

Hyundai Motor Group has announced that its chief design officer, Luc Donckerwolke, has resigned for personal reasons. The company did not provide specific reasons or details about his resignation, Yonhap News Agency reports.

In 2015, Donckerwolke was appointed to join the South Korean automaker to work on the company’s Genesis luxury sub-brand, and was later appointed as head of Hyundai Design Center. In October 2018, he was promoted to the role of overseeing the design direction and strategy of its Hyundai, Kia and Genesis brands, replacing Peter Schreyer.

Prior to his tenure at Hyundai, the 54-year old Belgian designer was the styling chief at Bentley. He has also had stints in a number of Volkswagen Group companies, including Audi, where he was responsible for the original TT and R8 Le Mans Racer. He was also design head at Lamborghini, where he oversaw the design of the Murcielago and Gallardo, and was also head of design at SEAT.

“The group’s audacious and progressive attitude has allowed me to push the boundaries and challenge the status quo. I have enjoyed the trust given to me by the group to create a design ‘dream team’ that has defined a DNA for the future of these brands and digitalidation of their design processes,” Donckerwolke said in a statement.

A company spokesman said that SangYup Lee, who joined the company in 2016 and is currently head of Hyundai Design Center, and Karim Habib, head of Kia Design Center, will jointly take over the role in shaping Hyundai, Genesis and Kia’s future design direction and innovation.

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Anthony Lim

Anthony Lim believes that nothing is better than a good smoke and a car with character, with good handling aspects being top of the prize heap. Having spent more than a decade and a half with an English tabloid daily never being able to grasp the meaning of brevity or being succinct, he wags his tail furiously at the idea of waffling - in greater detail - about cars and all their intrinsic peculiarities here.

 

Comments

  • Mr Hakim on Apr 29, 2020 at 6:29 pm

    Oh no, after this Hyundai will revert their car design back to ugly one :-(

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 6 Thumb down 4
    • Calvin on Apr 29, 2020 at 7:41 pm

      Hyundai cars RV kept dropping, he must go.

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 4 Thumb down 0
    • He probably got overruled again and again by company execs who each thought it was a good idea to mash in design elements from various brands, so he finally got sick and fired himself.

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 4 Thumb down 0
  • autodriver (Member) on Apr 29, 2020 at 6:35 pm

    Resignation accepted. He should have resigned earlier as the latest Hyundai car designs were getting uglier. Except the new Sanfa Fe is styling, the new Sonata and Elantra is really ugly and awful design.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 8 Thumb down 1
  • Mat Bond on Apr 29, 2020 at 6:58 pm

    Choose a colour picture lah, he hasn’t die just resign.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 15 Thumb down 0
    • Hafriz Shah (Member) on Apr 29, 2020 at 7:29 pm

      I get what you mean, but unfortunately that’s the only photo of him in Hyundai’s press site.

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 11 Thumb down 0
  • Ksatria on Apr 29, 2020 at 7:14 pm

    Luc Donckerwolke, designer the next Satria Gti?

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 5 Thumb down 0
  • Semi-Value (Member) on Apr 29, 2020 at 9:21 pm

    black white pic ingat sudah jalan

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 3 Thumb down 0
  • Hired him on Apr 29, 2020 at 11:39 pm

    Dear geely or proton, hire him now!

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 1
  • RIP…oh wait

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 1 Thumb down 0
  • no wonder the latest hyundai elantra grille is super ugly…thanks to this fella design

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
  • vivizurianti on Apr 30, 2020 at 11:25 am

    No worries…….With such great talent, he will surely be hiredand succeed. China willing to pay top dollars, as their car biz is growing.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
 

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