Thomas Faustmann, Dipl Ing., was born in Peine (Lower Saxony) on September 30, 1962. He is married and has four children.
After an apprenticeship as a foundry specialist at the Peine and Salzgitter Steel Works and graduating in mechanical engineering at the University of Hannover, Dr. h.c. Thomas Faustmann began his career in 1991 as a production planner at the Salzgitter plant of Volkswagen AG.
As of 1992, he worked in planning in Wolfsburg. In 1995, he was made Head of Planning for Engine Manufacturing at the Chemnitz plant. In 1998, he returned to the Salzgitter plant, where he held several management positions, the last of which was Head of the Engine R5/V/W Product Center.
In 2002, Faustmann moved to AUDI HUNGARIA MOTOR Kft., at first as Head of Production, and from 2004 onwards he was Chairman of the Management there. At the same time, Faustmann was Head of Engine and Transmission Planning in Ingolstadt. Under his leadership, the engine plant in Győr, Hungary, became the biggest in the world. In addition, car production at Audi Hungaria was developed into manufacturing with a full chain of production in 2013. Meanwhile, four models drive off the assembly lines there – completely produced in Győr.
Since April 2016, Dr. h.c. Thomas Faustmann has been Head of the Pre-Series Center at AUDI AG. This is where Audi builds concept cars, prototypes and pre-series vehicles. The task of the Pre-Series Center is to provide the Technical Development division with experimental material for testing and assessment, while ensuring a car’s series-production feasibility. For this purpose, the cars are produced virtually and physically under conditions close to series production, and are then analyzed. A key aspect is the very close collaboration between development and production. The Audi Pre-Series Center is present at all of the Audi Group’s worldwide production plants when new models go into production, and is permanently established at the plants in Ingolstadt, Neckarsulm, Győr (Hungary), Brussels (Belgium), Beijing (China) and San José Chiapa (Mexico).
In 2007, Dr. h.c. Thomas Faustmann received the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary in recognition of his work for the development of the Hungarian automotive industry. In 2014, Széchenyi István University of Győr awarded him an honorary doctorate for promotion of scientific cooperation between the University and AUDI HUNGARIA MOTOR Kft.