The Daimler AG Board of Management has approved the creation of the position of chief design officer with effect from 1 November 2016. At the same time the Board has appointed Head of Design, Gorden Wagener, as Chief Design Officer at executive vice-president level.

With this step, Daimler says it is strengthening the significance and the responsibility of the role of design for the company, its products and the global brands.

Gorden Wagener has been at the helm of Daimler AG’s globally operating design unit since mid-2008 and with his international team he is responsible for the design of all the company's brands and products. His team is not only based in Sindelfingen but also operates in Advanced Design Studios in California, Italy and China, and in five more of the Group's sites.

According to Dr Dieter Zetsche, CEO of Daimler AG and head of Mercedes-Benz Cars, "Good design is much more than simply creating beautiful products: it combines function with fascination and gives brand values an unmistakable form. We are delighted that, under the leadership of Gorden Wagener, our design team is among the best in the industry. Because the global sales success of our vehicles is, after all, in part due to their outstanding design."

Currently, together with his team Wagener is further developing the design strategy and is thus supporting the implementation of CASE  which stand for the strategic pillars of connectivity (Connected), autonomous driving (Autonomous), flexible use (Shared & Services) and electric drive systems (Electric), which will be intelligently combined with one another by the company.

Gorden Wagener's signature as the head of design is borne by all the current passenger cars from the brand with the star, including the high-performance models from the Mercedes-AMG brand, the most exclusive models from Mercedes-Maybach, and also the products from the smart brand plus all the Group's commercial vehicles.

Gorden Wagener was born on September 3, 1968 in Essen, Germany. Following his Industrial Design degree at the University of Essen (1990-1993) he went on to specialise in Transportation Design at The Royal College of Art in London. Before he joined Mercedes-Benz in 1997 he worked as an exterior designer for various brands.