Dr. Rüdiger Recknagel was born in Karlsruhe on December 13, 1963. He is married and has three daughters.
After graduating in process engineering at the University of Karlsruhe, Recknagel gained a doctorate at the Institute for Chemical Process Engineering in Karlsruhe, in the field of heterogeneous catalysis for a petrochemical process.
He started his career at AUDI AG in Ingolstadt in 1994 as a technician in the paint shop at the Ingolstadt plant. Following various management positions in the paint shop, he was responsible for the start-up of the first water-based-paint line at the Ingolstadt plant in 1998.
After that, Recknagel was Head of the Corrosion Protection department in the Technical Development division in Ingolstadt. At the same time, he was Project Manager in charge of the construction of the new Audi Corrosion Protection Center in Neustadt an der Donau.
That was followed by positions as Head of Quality Assurance at the paint shop in Ingolstadt, Head of Quality Analysis for the entire Ingolstadt plant and Head of Operational Management with Cost and Project Controlling in the A4 segment. As of 2011, Recknagel was responsible for the A4/A5/Q5 paint shop at the Ingolstadt plant.
Since February 1, 2016, Dr. Rüdiger Recknagel has been the Environmental Officer for the Audi plant in Ingolstadt and at the same time Environmental Officer for AUDI AG within the Volkswagen Group. He also holds the position of Management Spokesman of Audi Stiftung für Umwelt GmbH (the Audi Environmental Foundation).