Bentley Motors announced the appointment of Tobias Sühlmann as the new Director of Design, commencing 1 February 2023. He succeeds Andreas Mindt who moves to the Head of Design role at Volkswagen Passenger Cars.Sühlmann has been promoted from his position as Head of Exterior Design at Bentley, having joined the luxury marque in October 2021. With a 20-year career in automotive design, Sühlmann has held senior design positions at McLaren, Aston Martin, Bugatti and Volkswagen’s Potsdam Design Centre which he joined in 2005 before moving to Volkswagen Design in Wolfsburg in 2007. Here he worked on the Passat, Arteon and Touareg as well as different Showcars.He was instrumental in the design of the Bentley Batur, working under the direction of Andreas Mindt. Batur embodies the start of a design revolution at Bentley, showcasing a new design DNA that will ultimately guide the design of Bentley’s future range of battery electric vehicles.Sühlmann will report directly to Dr. Matthias Rabe, Bentley’s Board Member for Research and Development. Rabe comments: “Tobias has made a very significant, positive impression since joining us in 2021 in what was, and still is, a critical, yet exciting time for the business as we accelerate our journey to full electrification by 2030. His previous experiences from luxury automotive, combined with a strong understanding of the Bentley brand and the Volkswagen Group means he is perfectly positioned to enable us to achieve our future ambitions as the leader in sustainable luxury mobility.“We would like you to join us thanking Andreas for his significant impact on the future product design during his time at Bentley, and in wishing both him and Tobias every success in their new roles.”     Working at Bentley’s headquarters in Crewe, UK, Sühlmann will lead a team of approximately 50 design experts with responsibility for the exterior, interior and colour and trim design for the full current and future Bentley product portfolio, concept and showcars. Commenting on his new role, Sühlmann said:    “We are currently reimagining our design language at Bentley and so having the responsibility to lead this, working closely with all my colleagues, is a privilege. Together, we look forward to taking Bentley to a new direction and making sure modern-day Bentley’s are potent, inspirational and harmonious.”     

Bentley Motors today announced the appointment of Ansar Ali as the new Mulliner and Motorsport Director, reporting directly to Adrian Hallmark, Chairman and CEO. Ali will lead the reorganised Mulliner division as customer personalisation reaches record levels of demand. Ali, who has a 30-year career in the automotive industry, joins from McLaren Special Vehicle Operations where he was Managing Director. Before this, Ali held senior management roles at Ford, Lotus, Caterham and co-founded Zenos Cars.    Ali’s dual responsibilities at Bentley cover Motorsport activities, working closely with the GT3 race teams currently competing, and a focus on Bentley’s personal commissioning division, Mulliner, the oldest coachbuilder in the world and now with three distinct classifications; Classics, Collections and Coachbuilt. Commenting on Ali’s appointment, Adrian Hallmark said:                         “Mulliner represents the very pinnacle of automotive design and expertise, and Ansar joins at a time when we are experiencing record levels of demand across our features, collections, coachbuilt and classics possibilities. Ansar’s considerable industry experience, particularly leading low-volume, highly bespoke customer-led divisions will offer valuable insights that will reinforce Mulliner as the leading personal commissioning division and generate significant contributions to the wider Bentley business.”Ali will lead a reorganised Mulliner bespoke division in which Paul Williams becomes Chief Technical Officer, having held a number of senior positions in a 15-year career at Bentley, and Bob Martin, formerly Head of Final Assembly at Bentley, becomes Chief Operating Officer. All positions are effective immediately.Mulliner has been building bespoke bodies and cabins since 1923 and today handcrafts exquisite, personalised cars that epitomise luxury, performance, exclusivity and individuality. Mulliner’s portfolio includes coachbuilt cars such as the Batur, heritage limited editions including the Blower, and a wide variety of stunning and unique customer projects.          The high level of customer demand for bespoke services, reaching record numbers in 2022, helped push Bentley to its third consecutive record sales year, announcing last week a sales success of 15,174 in 2022, a four per cent increase on 2021.