POWER LIST
50 Charles Gordon-Lennox
Duke of Richmond, Founder of Goodwood Festival of Speed and Goodwood Revival
2020 Rank: 8
Gordon-Lennox is the founder of the Goodwood Festival of Speed and Goodwood Revival, and he ensured it lived on digitally in 2020. When the celebration of automotive past, present, and future was canceled, it was replaced by Goodwood SpeedWeek, three days of livestreamed track races, a rally race, and a final timed lap to win the Shootout. The digital experience still attracted high-profile vehicle introductions and brought the event to a wider audience.
49 Markus Flasch
CEO, M Division, BMW
2020 Rank: Unranked
Flasch oversees the development and release of cars like the M8 Competition, BMW’s fastest road car, into the wild. Almost half of all BMWs have an M badge or M trim line; BMWs with M badges have seen sales rise 207 percent in the past five years, and Flasch (who was scooped up from Magna Steyr) has a nine-model offensive underway. The M2 is the base from which he is building the lineup; his personal favorite is the M2 CS with a manual transmission.
48 Alejandro Agag
Chairman, Formula E
2020 Rank: 37
Agag is not only the man behind Formula E; he is also the visionary behind Extreme E, the off-road electric motorsports series. He is adding an electric boating championship to further use sport to promote awareness about global climate issues and the adoption of clean energy solutions. His electric racing series continues to grow in scale and popularity as it enters its seventh season.
47 Klaus Busse
Vice President Design for Fiat, Abarth, Lancia, Alfa Romeo, Maserati, FCA
2020 Rank: Unranked
Busse designed vehicles for Daimler before moving to the U.S. as part of DaimlerChrysler. After the corporate divorce, he chose to stay with Chrysler, where he transformed interiors and pushed his team to incorporate secret touches known as Easter eggs. Now Busse oversees design of FCA’s European brands. His keen eye, attention to detail, and general flair are evident in the lines of the Maserati MC20 supercar, lustworthy Alfas, and intriguing ideas for Fiat.
It was a year dominated by a pandemic. At its nadir, automakers stopped making cars, dealerships closed their showrooms, and some OEMs and suppliers used their plants to make masks and ventilators to help hospitals cope with the patient load.
Some vehicle programs were delayed, costs were cut, and key unveils went ahead virtually instead of at auto shows. Hundreds of thousands of white-collar employees worked from home, buyers purchased cars online, and discounts were rolled out to keep sales from tanking.
It was a year Power List.
