Change in design leadership at Porsche Lifestyle Group

Effective April 1, 2023, the Porsche Lifestyle GmbH & Co. KG has appointed a new head of design. Roland Heiler, the longstanding CDO of the Porsche Lifestyle Group and Managing Director of Porsche Design GmbH, will be followed by Carsten Monnerjan. As new Managing Director of Porsche Design GmbH, he will lead the creative team at Studio F. A. Porsche in Zell am See. Focus of his work will be to establish an even closer collaboration between the worldwide Porsche Design studios in Zell am See, Berlin, Los Angeles, Shanghai, and Ludwigsburg as well as the Style Porsche studio in Weissach.

“It’s terrific that we were able to get Carsten Monnerjan as the new head of design for the Porsche Lifestyle Group. He is a perfect fit for the position. His prior professional experience has always put him at the interface between car design and lifestyle product design and he gained a lot of international experience doing it. That is a major point of interest for design in our brand and for Studio F. A. Porsche’s industrial clientèle,” says Stefan Buescher, CEO of the Porsche Lifestyle Group.

In the future, Monnerjan and his team of lifestyle and industrial design experts will work even more closely with the team run by Michael Mauer, Vice President Style Porsche at Porsche AG. The goal is to transfer the sports car manufacturer’s brand-defining design DNA even more consistently into Porsche Lifestyle Group products. “The intensified collaboration between the Porsche Design and Porsche brands emphasizes the design department’s strategic importance once again,” says Michael Mauer. “Future products – even beyond cars – will be oriented even more consistently toward our design DNA. Our close collaboration will also enable us to combine our expertise and ensure that our products will be viable well into the future through a consistent brand identity in the luxury segment.”

“It’s a great honor and a pleasure to join this iconic brand. To me, good design means: as little as possible and as much as necessary. That was also the premise for the company’s founder, F. A. Porsche: reduce design to the essentials. I’m looking forward to adding my experience and creativity to the team while enjoying the famous Porsche design philosophy and innovative power. Those are ideal conditions for creating new trends and responding to nowadays’ needs with agility and for making more exciting developments in the Porsche Lifestyle Group’s product portfolio,” says Carsten Monnerjan about his future task.

After successfully developing the Porsche Design brand over the course of decades and making a significant mark on its timeless, purist design, Roland Heiler will be retiring. Under his leadership, Studio F. A. Porsche successfully implemented numerous international projects that won prestigious awards for product and industrial design. In 2021, Studio F. A. Porsche was designated by the Red Dot Award as the “Design Team of the Year.”

“I value the creative freedom, exciting environment, and particularly the trust that I’ve been given over all these years. I always felt that it was a great honor and an exciting challenge to translate Porsche’s iconic design language beyond the sports car into our lifestyle products and, in the process, to reflect both tradition and the zeitgeist in the design,” says Roland Heiler.

“We are grateful to Roland Heiler for all his creativity and dedication. Time and again, he was able to successfully convey the legacy of our founder, Prof. F. A. Porsche, and the Porsche brand’s unique DNA into other, new product worlds while still providing the brand with his distinctive personal style. It has been a success story for the company, and it is one that we now want to keep writing with Carsten Monnerjan,” says Stefan Buescher.

Setting the course for the next 50 years

This year, the Porsche Design brand is celebrating its 50th anniversary with design highlights from its most important product categories, like timepieces and eyewear, as well as a limited Capsule Collection. The conclusion of this special anniversary year will coincide with the generational shift in the design field. “This is a decisive moment for us. We plan to continue to link timeless design with innovative function in the future with our new Head of Design Carsten Monnerjan, as our company has done over the last 50 years. Our ambition is to jointly advance new developments in design and in our product portfolio and to expand the role of our worldwide design studios further,” says Stefan Buescher, looking toward.

Passion for cars and design

In his last position, Carsten Monnerjan was Head of Design at the Audi subsidiary Italdesign. There, he was able to significantly shape the team and investigate new industrial fields for the company’s design department. Between 2008 and 2012, he led the Audi design studio in Munich as both designer and manager. Together with his team he dedicated himself to transportation design, product design and “future mobility concepts.” In 1993, right after graduating from university, Monnerjan began his design career as an exterior designer with the automotive group before transferring to Spain to work in the VW Group’s design studio Design Center Europe. His design expertise has always focused on car-related industrial design.