Otmar Szafnauer is the Chief Operating Officer of the Sahara Force India Formula One motor racing team. He was formerly the Vice President of Honda Racing Developments and a member of the Management Board of the Honda F1 team. He was born in Romania to an American father of German descent and a Romanian mother, but moved to Detroit when he was seven years old. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from Wayne State University in Detroit before completing a Master's degree in business and finance from the University of Detroit. He joined the Ford Motor Company in 1986. While working for Ford he attended the Jim Russell Racing Driver School and started racing in Formula Ford in 1991. In 1993 he was appointed Programmes Manager for Ford in the U.S. While working at Ford, he met Adrian Reynard who asked him to become Operations Director at British American Racing in Formula One in 1998. After three years at BAR, he was recruited by Bobby Rahal in 2001 to be Chief Operating Officer at Jaguar Racing, but a week before he was supposed to start Rahal was fired and Szafnauer never joined the team. 

August 13th, 1964 in (Age 60)