Dr. Ulrich Hackenberg was born on May 12, 1950 in Herne (North Rhine-Westphalia).

 

After studying mechanical engineering at RWTH Aachen University, Ulrich Hackenberg was active as an assistant at the Automotive Institute from 1978 until 1985.

 

In 1985, Dr. Hackenberg joined AUDI AG, where in 1989 he was put in charge of Concept Definition and later took over the technical project management of the entire product range.

 

From 1998 until 2002, Dr. Hackenberg worked for Volkswagen AG, where he was Head of Superstructure Development and also assumed responsibility for Concept Development in late 1998. Beside renewing the whole VW model range he basically was involved in the development of Phaeton and the platform PQ35.

 

In addition to his tasks at Volkswagen, Dr. Hackenberg was appointed Member of the Board for Development at Rolls Royce Bentley Motor Cars Ltd. and restructured the company’s Technical Development. He was responsible for the concepts of the future Bentley models as well as the new launches of the Bentley Arnage Red Label, the Rolls-Royce Seraph long wheelbase and the Rolls-Royce Corniche.

 

From 2002 until January 2007, Hackenberg moved back to AUDI AG to take charge of the areas of Concept Development, Body, Interior and Safety Development and Electrics/Electronics. During that time, he also developed the Modular Longitudinal Matrix. Additionally to the renewing process of the vehicles he took responsibility for new models like Q7, A5 and R8.

 

 

On February 1, 2007, Hackenberg was appointed Member of Volkswagen’s Brand Board for DevelopmentFro. He was responsible for numerous vehicle projects such as Polo, Golf, Tiguan, Passat etc. As a strategically project he developed the Modular Matrix System MQB.

 

 

From July 1, 2013 to 2015, he had been a member of the Board of Management of AUDI AG with responsibility for Audi’s Technical Development. In addition, he was also responsible for the technical development of all the Volkswagen Group’s brands. Beside a design reorientation he initiated in this period technology switches to eMobility, fuel cell technology and digitization. As completely new vehicle he initiated the Q2.

End of 2015 Dr. Hackenberg left his active career but still is engaged to transfer his knowledge and experiences to younger generations of engineers.