Volkswagen made several changes to its design department. The automaker announced today that Andreas Mindt will become VW’s head of design. The automaker has appointed its predecessor, Jozef Kabaň, as the brand’s Creative Arts Director. Mindt assumes his new role on February 1.
Mindt, currently Bentley Design Director, began his career at the Volkswagen Group in 1996, graduating with a degree from the University of Pforzheim’s School of Design. In 2014, after having held several roles at the Volkswagen brand which saw him work on the design of the first-generation Tiguan and the exterior of the Golf 7, Mindt moved to Audi, where he led a project to update the brand’s exterior design.
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He remains at Audi until 2021, when he becomes Design Director of Bentley. The VW Group tasked him with crafting the design language for Bentley’s future, which was revealed last year with the Bentley Batur.
Kabaň’s career at Volkswagen began in 1993, and he was involved in designing the Bugatti Veyron. He studied product and industrial design at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Slovakia and earned a Master of Arts degree in automotive design from the Royal College of Art in London in 1997.
He became Audi’s head of exterior design in 2003 and served as Head of Design at Skoda from 2008 to 2017. He then worked on two vehicle brands outside the VW Group before returning in 2020 as Chief Designer at the Volkswagen brand. Kabaň will report directly to Management Board member Kai Grünitz, who is in charge of technical development.
Grünitz said Kabaň “left his mark all over our reach” while saying he was “thrilled… to get hold of Andreas Mindt.” Kabaň’s new role with the VW Group Future Center Europe will include the development of “forward-looking mobility solutions for the Volkswagen brand”. Like other industries, Volkswagen is transitioning to building electric vehicles. Mindt will “shape the Volkswagen design language in our defining transformation phase,” added Grünitz.
