TITLE: President and Chief Creative Officer
COMPANY: Hyundai Motor Group
BASED: Seoul
AGE: 58
NATIONALITY: Belgian
CAREER HIGHLIGHTS
Luc Donckerwolke, who has degrees in industrial engineering from ECAM in Brussels and transport design from Art Center College of Design in Vevey, Switzerland, started his career at Audi as an exterior stylist in 1992. He then worked for Skoda and again at Audi before moving to Lamborghini in 1998, where he was promoted to head of design in 2003. In 2005 he was named head of design at Seat and in 2011 head of advanced design for Volkswagen Group. Donckerwolke became design director at VW Group subsidiary Bentley in 2012. He moved to Hyundai Motor Group in 2016 as design director, and was promoted to chief design officer in 2018 and chief creative officer in 2020.
REASONS FOR WINNING
Hyundai Motor Group has some of the most advanced full-electric vehicles on the market right now, with the 800-volt Electric Global Modular Platform (E-GMP) offering leading range and charging time. The first models on the architecture, the Hyundai Ioniq 5 and 6, Kia EV6 and Genesis GV60 have become popular successes and won praise for their forward-thinking design, including spacious interiors and very low coefficient of drag.
As head of design for the group, Donckerwolke has overseen the styling of these models, with upcoming electric models for Europe including the new Kona, the Ioniq 7 and Kia EV9 SUVs, and potentially a minicar that would sell for less than €25,000. But Donckerwolke’s contributions are not limited to EVs. He has directed the development of the premium Genesis brand, and supervised the design of combustion-based hits such as the new Hyundai Tucson, which has shot to the top of the ultra-competitive compact SUV segment in Europe. Thanks in part to Donckerwolke and his team, the group’s brands have taken significant chunks of market share in Europe, with Kia’s share going from 3 percent in 2017 to 5 percent in 2022, and Hyundai’s share going from 3.2 percent to 4.8 percent in the same period.
