Mercedes-Benz officially announced major personnel changes:Chief Design Officer Gorden Wagener will officially leave his post on January 31, 2026. Wagner, 56, joined Mercedes-Benz in 1997 and has led its global design operations since 2008. He was promoted to chief design officer in 2016 and has been with the company for 28 years, making him the longest-serving design leader in the brand's history.
The "emotional and pure" design philosophy he proposed completely broke Mercedes-Benz's previous conservative engineer-led style and promoted the brand image from "being admired" to "being loved".
Under his leadership, many milestone models were born,Including the S-Class that reshaped the luxury benchmark, the CLS that created the four-door coupe segment, the AMG GT that reborn the classic, and the revived design of the Maybach brand.
However, the EQ series electric models he led also caused market controversy due to their excessive pursuit of aerodynamic "jelly bean" shape.
As Mercedes-Benz's first non-engineer design leader, Wagoner's contribution goes beyond models.
He also established a unified design system covering the Mercedes-Benz, Maybach, AMG and EQ sub-brands. The Vision Iconic concept car, which debuted in Shanghai in October 2025, became the final work of his career.
After Wagner stepped down, his successor was 41-year-old Bodi. He is a designer trained within Mercedes-Benz and joined the brand in 2010. He is good at integrating performance genes with luxurious textures and has led the design of classic models such as the AMG GT Black Series.
As for where Wagner will go, perhaps it would be a good choice to join the Chinese independent brands that are currently gaining momentum.
Vision Iconic concept car