Peter Horbury, Volvo Design Chief, Is Moving to Geely - The New Times

In a press release, the Volvo Car Corporation announced that Peter Horbury, its vice president of design, would be taking up the role of senior vice president of design at Geely, Volvo’s corporate sibling under the Zhejiang Geely Holding Group.

Peter Horbury.

Li Shufu, chairman of Geely Holding and Volvo, said that Mr. Horbury’s “vast experience in the industry” was a factor in offering Mr. Horbury, a Briton, the job.

It was not clear when Mr. Horbury would begin his new assignment or when his successor at Volvo would be named. Per-Ake Froberg, a Volvo spokesman, said in a telephone interview that Mr. Horbury was no longer working for the Swedish automaker, but could not confirm when he would assume his new role at Geely.

Mr. Horbury is best known for steering Volvo away from the boxy, utilitarian shapes that came to signify the brand during the ’70s and ’80s. His ECC sedan concept of 1992 presaged the S60 and S80 sedans, which reintroduced sloping, sensuous forms to the company’s design approach. He left his post in 2002 for Ford, Volvo’s owner at the time, where he worked primarily on Lincoln models.

As with Volvo in the ’90s, Mr. Horbury coaxed Lincoln toward more expressive styling; the controversial grille worn by current Lincolns like the MKT, which has garnered unflattering comparisons to the mouth of a baleen whale, is a trait born of his tenure at Ford.

He returned to Volvo in 2009 and was in the process of adding even more curvature to the company’s models — as seen on the Concept Universe unveiled at the Shanghai auto show in April and Concept You at Frankfurt in September — when the announcement of his new position was made.

Mr. Horbury’s departure for an Asian automaker parallels that of Peter Schreyer, the former Audi design chief who took the top job at Kia, and Bryan Nesbitt, the General Motors designer who is now charged with setting the conglomerate’s design direction in China.

Under his new role, Mr. Horbury would be responsible for the aesthetics of Geely’s Gleagle, Emgrand and Shanghai Emglon brands; Geely as a standalone brand is expected to be dissolved in 2012.

Geely Holding bought Volvo from Ford in 2010. As noted in a report by Wheels, the company has not meddled in its Swedish subsidiary’s affairs, instead assuming the role of a quiet benefactor. Hiring Mr. Horbury to lead design at Geely is one of the most public indications by the corporate parent of Volvo’s Chinese ownership.



Source: http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/02/peter-horbury-volvo-design-chief-is-moving-to-geely/?scp=7&sq=moving%20news&st=cse




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