There are gradual changes happening in the design departments of the Volkswagen Group. Back in April, Klaus Zyciora was named Head of Volkswagen Group Design and took on responsibility for the global design of the twelve Group brands. SEAT and CUPRA will now also have new design leadership, with Jorge Díez as the new Design Director from 1 December 2020. Klaus Zyciora studied industrial design at Braunschweig University of Art and after graduating in 1989, he began working for Volkswagen as an interior designer. Following positions as Exterior Designer and Concept Designer, he became Head of Interior Design in 2000 and Head of Exterior Design in 2002. In 2007, Zyciora became Head of Volkswagen Design and Executive Director with over 600 designers at the locations in Wolfsburg, Shanghai, São Paulo and Mexico City. Previous milestones in his career include the Golf VI, Golf VII and Golf VIII, the Touareg, Tiguan and T-Roc SUV series and the vehicles in the upcoming ID. family.
The Spaniard Jorge Díez brings with him around 20 years of experience in automotive design. Díez studied in Valencia and at the Royal College of Art in London and has spent almost his entire career in exterior design. After seven years at Audi in Ingolstadt, he joined SEAT’s design department in 2008. In 2010, he was appointed Senior Designer at Volkswagen in Wolfsburg, and a year later he was promoted to Head of Exterior Design at SEAT. Díez returned to Audi in 2014 to lead the Konzept Design studio in Munich, and worked for brands such as Audi, Lamborghini and Ducati. Three years later, he was promoted to Head of Audi’s Exterior Design department. In July 2019, he joined Mitsubishi Motors to lead the creative team for Europe. During his previous time as Head of SEAT Exterior Design, Díez was one of the creators of the third-generation Leon, the fourth-generation Ibiza and the Ateca, the first SUV in the history of the Spanish carmaker. During his time at Audi, he created models such as the second-generation Audi TT and the first-generation Audi A7.
