INVITED SPEAKERS

The American designer (born 1956) started his career at Ford. He moved to Europe at the time when no American designers had ever thought about working for European car brands. He worked with Volvo, Ghia, Fiat (designing the interiors of the Bravo e Brava) and Lancia. In 2006 he started a career on his own consulting for enterprises, contributing to the magazine Quattroruote and teaching at the European Institute of Design. In 2009 he became head of design at Bertone and later on created and led the design department at the ED group. The Dialogos, the Thesis, the concept car Nea and the Alfa Romeo Pandion designed at Bertone in 2010 are some of his notable designs.

The Italian automobile designer (born 1938) is one of the most popular names in the automotive world, thanks to the fact that he managed to build up an impressive portfolio of cars which have made history. He has worked on supercars and popular everyday vehicles. After working with Fiat, Bertone and Ghia, Giugiaro started his own company in 1967 called Italdesign. He was named Car Designer of the Century in 1999 and was included in the Automotive Hall of Fame in 2002. Giugiaro's Italdesign - today fully owned by the Volkswagen group - has evolved significantly in the latest years and has expanded to engineering, testing, high-tech and design objects.

Walter Maria de Silva (born 1951) started his car design career in 1972 as head of design for Fiat: he also worked as a designer at I.DE.A Institute, and as head of design for Alfa Romeo, SEAT and the now defunct 'Audi brand group'. In 2007 he was appointed Head of Volkswagen Group Design, and oversaw the design of all Volkswagen Group passenger car brands including Audi, Volkswagen, SEAT, Skoda as well as Bentley, Lamborghini and Bugatti. After more than 40 years in design and before turning 65, he decided to leave the group on 30th November 2015.

Flavio Manzoni (born 1965) is an Italian architect and automobile designer of supercars and everyday vehicles, such as Ferrari, Lancia, Volkswagen, SEAT. From January 2010 he has been appointed Senior Vice President of Design in Ferrari and is working on a new identity for the Italian brand. As a design director he is leading the style center team to develop the latest cars including the Ferrari FF, F12Berlinetta and LaFerrari. The designer realized the concept of the Lancia Fulvia Coupé, and in particular the Lancia Ypsilon and the Lancia Musa, both winners of the "European Automotive Design Award", in 2003. He was the art director for Volkswagen, responsible for the new stylistic imprint of the brand. He designed the Volkswagen Golf Mk6. In May 2014 he received the Compasso d'Oro, the oldest and most recognized award in the industrial design field. The award was for the F12 berlinetta that represents a true marriage of technology and aesthetics. In December 2014 on Yas Marina circuit in Abu Dhabi (UAE) the FXX K has been presented as the most powerful Ferrari ever, based on the architecture of the very first hybrid car of Maranello, LaFerrari, but in fact a complete new car, also in the design.

Born in 1961, is a British car designer. He studied engineering and design and holds masters in automotive design from the Royal College of Art in London. He started his career with Ford and joined Opel in 2002 in the newly created Director of Exterior Design role, responsible for exterior design of all Opel/Vauxhall vehicles. He was appointed Vice President GM Europe Design in 2007 and started working at the GM Europe Design Center in Rüsselsheim, Germany, taking up the responsibility of car designs across GM's Opel/Vauxhall, Saab and Saturn. He became Executive Director of Design for Cadillac and Buick in the US in 2012 and returned to Europe one year afterwards to work with Opel. Among his designs are the Ford Fiesta (5th generation) the Insignia (2008) Zafira Tourer (2011), Astra (2015), Adam (2012). Adams has truly revolutionized the Opel style.

The US designer (born 1959) studied automotive design at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. He began his career at Ford's design studio and later moved on to BWM where he spent eleven years creating the BMW X5 and, above all, redesigning the new Mini. In 2002 he was called by Fiat Group to oversee the design and development at Ferrari. He contributed to the F430, Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano, 612 Scaglietti and FXX and created some Maserati models such as the Quattroporte and the MC12. In 2005, Sergio Marchionne tasked him with the Fiat and Lancia Styling Center in Turin, where he oversaw the development of the new Bravo and translated Roberto Giolito's Trepiuno concept car into a production model. In 2007 he was appointed chief of Alfa Romeo's Cento Stile. He left Fiat in 2008 to become Design Director at Mclaren.

German, (born 1968), after studying Industrial Design at the University of Essen he specialized in Transportation Design at The Royal College of Art in London. Before he joined Mercedes-Benz in 1997, he worked as an exterior designer at Volkswagen, Mazda and GM. He has been Vice President Design for the worldwide operating design unit of Daimler AG since mid-2008. He is responsible for the design of all brands and products within Daimler AG. Under his leadership, the new design philosophy of sensual purity was created in 2009, which is now being continually developed. It defines modern luxury and expresses an essential aspect of the brand - the bipolarity of intelligence and emotion. A variety of models bear Gorden Wagener's signature as Vice President of Design, such as the new E-, C- and S-Class models, the GLE Coupé and GLC SUVs, the Mercedes-AMG GT as well as the Smart and the commercial vehicles of the company. In 2009 he received the title of Professor Honoris Causa from the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design in Budapest. In 2010 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Technical University of Sofia.

After completing a degree in industrial design at the Coventry University, McGovern went on to study for a Master degree at the Royal College of Art in London, specializing in automotive design. He began his career at Chrysler in Detroit, before returning to the UK as a Senior Designer for Peugeot and later joining the Rover Group. Through this period he was the lead designer of the critically acclaimed MGF sports car, the Land Rover Freelander - the bestselling compact SUV in Europe for 7 years, and led the team that created the third generation Range Rover. McGovern later moved to the Ford Motor Company to head up and rejuvenate the Lincoln-Mercury brands, setting up studios in Detroit and Irvine, California, before returning to the UK to run a design consultancy in London. McGovern rejoined Land Rover in 2004 as Director, Advanced Design, and was appointed Land Rover Design Director in 2006. Since then his position has grown to include the role of Chief Creative Officer and he is a member of the Jaguar Land Rover Executive Committee. Among his successful designs are the Range Rover Evoque, the Range Rover Sport (2013) and the new Discovery Sport. McGovern's passion for design stretches far beyond the automotive industry; he is an authority on modern architecture and furniture as well as a collector of contemporary art. He has sat on many panels judging design, presented at numerous prominent international automotive and business events and represents the company on a global level.

Shiro Nakamura studied Industrial Design at Musashino Art College in Tokyo before joining Isuzu Motors. Shortly after joining Isuzu, Shiro Nakamura went to the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California to study Transportation Design. He returned to Japan for four years before moving to General Motor's Advanced Design Studio in Detroit. From there, he travelled briefly back to Japan before heading to Europe to launch a design studio. He stayed in the UK for five years before returning to Japan. In 1997, he was promoted to be the head of design for Isuzu (where he signed the Vehicross concept), a position he held for two years before moving to Nissan. Here he started to gradually renew the brand image of the company. The Juke is, among others, one of the vehicles that he is particularly proud of. He was the Winner of the Grand Prix du Design 2015. Nakamura plays the bass and the cello, and he leads a band that performs in various jazz clubs around Tokyo. He is also interested in vintage cars and violins manufacturing.

Born 1972, he received his diploma from the Art Center College of Design in Vevey (Switzerland) and joined Citroën in 1996. Here he worked with Jean-Pierre Ploué and was responsible for the restyled Berlingo, the rally version of the Saxo and the "Osmose" (Osmosis) concept car. In 2005 he assumed overall responsibility for Citroën's concept cars. After his boss at Citroën, Jean-Pierre Ploué, was promoted to a position of responsibility for styling of both the Citroën and Peugeot brands in 2009, Gilles Vidal assumed responsibility for concept cars in the Peugeot style, supervising the Peugeots BB1 and SR1. He took a major part in defining the new identity for the Peugeot brand which would be unveiled at the beginning of 2010, and in January 2010 he was appointed Peugeot Design Director.

The Dutch designer (born 1965) studied engineering at the Delft University of Technology. He began his career as a designer at the Design System in Turin, in 1990 and contributed to the interior of the Bugatti EB110 supercar. Later he moved to Audi (1993), SHR Perceptual Management (1996) and Ford (1998). In 2006 he was appointed global head of Design for Mazda. In 2009 he joined Renault to lead the corporate design department. Since then, he has revolutionized Renault's brand identity, starting with the fourth generation Clio to continue with the Captur, Twingo, Mégane, Espace, Kadjar and finally, the new Scénic. He has also contributed to the design of the Twizy.

Fabio Filippini, from the Italy's province of Vercelli, has been Design director-chief creative officer of Pininfarina since 2011, overseeing projects like the Sergio and the H2 Speed. Filippini is a designer and a manager of Italian education and international experience in big automotive multinational groups. Graduated in Architecture and Industrial Design at the Faculty of Architecture of the Milan Politecnico, he has lived and worked in France, Japan and Spain. After having created and directed the satellite studio Renault Design Paris and developed the style of the Mégane range, from 2008 he served as Vice President of Interior design of the Renault group. In this position he was responsible for Interior design strategies and projects for all Group brands (Renault, Dacia, RSM). In parallel, he managed the Renault Design activities for Latin America, through the satellite studio Renault Design Latin America in São Paulo.

Born in 1969, has been Vice President of Design for FCA Europe since October 2015. Prior to this role he spent 10 years in the US where he was last responsible for the interior design of FCA North America. During this period he and his team transformed the interiors of Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge and Ram to an award winning line up. Klaus started his career with 10 years at Mercedes-Benz design in Germany. In November 2013 he received the Automotive News All-Star award for design and in January 2015 the Industry Innovator of the Year award.