Mercedes design boss steps down after 18 years

It’s been a week of change for long-standing automotive design bosses it seems, with Gorden Wagener now stepping down as Mercedes-Benz Chief Design Officer after nine years in the role and 28 years at the company. The news comes in the form of a gushing farewell from Mercedes, quite unlike the comparatively unceremonious leak of JLR design chief Gerry McGovern’s still unclarified departure. Wagener will be succeeded by Bastian Baudy, the current head of design at Mercedes-AMG.

Wagener’s legacy at Mercedes goes back almost as far as McGovern’s at Land Rover, first joining Mercedes in 1997 under seminal design boss Bruno Sacco. Though occupying the board role created for him of Chief Design Officer for nine years, overseeing design across all group brands, Wagenger had been Mercedes’ design chief since his appointment in 2007.

Appointed at the age of 39, he was the youngest design chief in Mercedes history at the time of his appointment. Not to mention, the first in its history to not come from an engineering background but one purely of design.

One of his first jobs was a dream, penning the long-bonnetted super GT that was the McLaren-Mercedes SLR. His latest work, the third-generation Mercedes-Benz CLA, has just entered production and is exemplary of his ‘sensual purity’ design philosophy and indeed, how divisive it can be. Though its slippery sculpted form is surely an improvement compared to arguably his most controversial creation, the amorphous Mercedes EQS.

Some great designs go to his credit though, two of the best being the first-generation CLS four-door coupe and the last-generation AMG GT. His influence will be felt across Mercedes-Benz, Maybach and AMG models for years to come.