START-UP prestige EV manufacturer Duesenberg Incorporated has appointed hydrogen fuel-cell business H2X Australia founder and CEO Brendan Norman as its chief strategy officer.

He is joined by H2X chief technical officer Ian Thompson who has become Duesenberg’s chief technical officer. Both men join the company while retaining their H2X positions.

Duesenberg Inc. is a subsidiary of Canadian-listed technology and mobile phone company Duesenberg Technologies which is based in Malaysia and trades as VGrab Communications.

Mr Norman has extensive experience in the automotive and business development sector.  He is currently on the board of H2X Australia, a sustainable vehicle and heavy equipment company H2X Australia. He was instrumental in setting up Asia-Pacific subsidiaries for companies including Volkswagen Group, BMW Group and Infiniti.

He has a Bachelor of Business (Accounting) degree from Deakin University in 1992, and Graduate Diploma in Business Systems from Monash University in 1998.

Ian Thompson is based in Detroit and is an experienced and dedicated automotive engineering professional. He is also on the board of H2X Australia and comes to Duesenberg from Grove Hydrogen Automobiles where he was chief engineer since 2018.

Prior to this position, Mr Thompson has worked with automotive manufacturers including Rover Group, Group Lotus, Maserati, Alfa Romeo and Karma.

He has a Bachelor of Science – Mechanical Engineering from Tile Hill College, UK in 1989, and Master of Science in Design, Manufacture, and Management from the University of Hertfordshire in 2002.

Duesenberg has also appointed engineer and racecar driver Juergen Barth as a director. He won the 1977 24 Hours Le Mans in a Porsche 936, the 1980 1000km Nürburgring and the 2014 CER Championship with a Porsche 911 Carrera RSR 3.0.

In 1982 Mr. Barth served as Director of Porsche Customer Racing and headed a new department in Weissach for the manufacture and sale of Porsche Groupe C and 911 race cars.

He also served as president of the FIA Sports Car Commission from 1982-1986; is the originator of the OSCAR Organisation for Groupe C racing in 1984-1989; is a permanent steward of the German DTM Championship; from 1999 to 2015 was the representative of the Manufactures in the FIA Historic Commission; the 2017 race director for the LMP3 Series in China; and is an accomplished author with more than 10 books published about Porsche Racing Cars including “The Porsche Book”, a three volume, 1550-page set.

By Neil Dowling