Donckerwolke to head Advanced Design at Volkswagen Group

Mesonero-Romanos takes over as Director of Design at SEAT.

Luc Donckerwolke (46) becomes Head of Advanced Design at the Volkswagen Group effective August 1, 2011; in this new function, he reports direct to Design Chief Walter de Silva. Donckerwolke’s successor as Director of Design at the SEAT brand is Alejandro Mesonero-Romanos (43).

Luc Donckerwolke studied industrial engineering and transportation design and joined the Volkswagen Group in 1992. He began as an exterior designer at Audi before moving to Škoda in 1994 to take charge of coordinating exterior design. Donckerwolke returned to Audi in 1996 to head the exterior design department at the Munich design studio, subsequently becoming studio director in Ingolstadt. In 1998 he joined the Group’s Lamborghini brand as design project manager and was appointed Head of Design at Lamborghini in 2003. He became Director of Design at SEAT in 2005.

Alejandro Mesonero-Romanos joined the Volkswagen Group in 1995 and was involved in designing several models at SEAT. The automotive design graduate continued his career at the Group’s Design Center Europe in Spain from 1997 where he took charge of exterior design on various projects for the SEAT, Volkswagen and Audi brands. Mesonero-Romanos moved to Renault in 2001, assuming responsibility for several design projects and becoming Head of Advanced Design from 2007. He was appointed Design Director at Renault Samsung Motors in 2009.