Ford design chief J Mays moving to London, will focus on Premier Automotive Group brands!
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12-17-2004, 08:13 PM
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Ford design chief J Mays moving to London, will focus on Premier Automotive Group brands!
Ford design chief J Mays moving to London, will focus on Premier Automotive Group brands
AMY WILSON | Automotive News and BRADFORD WERNLE | Automotive News Europe
Posted Date: 12/17/04
J Mays, Ford Motor Co.'s group vice president of design, will move to London and add a title: chief creative officer.
The move will allow Mays to focus on design at Ford's Premier Automotive Group brands: Aston Martin, Jaguar, Land Rover and Volvo and to monitor design at Ford of Europe.
Mays, 50, works at Ford's Dearborn, Mich., headquarters. He says he is not taking a lesser role in the company's design management.
"They're going to let me spend a couple of years in London, which is something I've been pushing hard," Mays says.
Mays will work at Ford's office in London's Soho district, the site of the company's former Ingeni studio. The advanced design studio closed last year, and the designers there returned to the various Ford brands. PAG Chairman Mark Fields still has offices there.
Peter Horbury, former Volvo design chief, will remain in charge of North American design while Martin Smith will run Ford's European design operations.
Mays' new job will enable him to work more closely with designers Ian Callum at Jaguar and Geoff Upex at Land Rover.
He also will focus on Volvo, which is without a chief designer after the departure of Henrik Otto this year. Mays says he has found a replacement for Otto but isn't ready to say who it is.
Mays says he will spend about 10 days a month in Dearborn. For the last 18 months, he says he has spent 10 days to two weeks out of each month in London.
"What we're doing is trying to work on the next decade of design direction for each of the individual brands," he says.
Mays says it was his idea to move to the United Kingdom.
London is "ground zero for media creativity," he says.
He says he is putting together a team of about five "strategic thinkers" to help him in London. Some are with the company and some are not. He won't say who the individuals are.
Autoweek.com
redriderbob
AMY WILSON | Automotive News and BRADFORD WERNLE | Automotive News Europe
Posted Date: 12/17/04
J Mays, Ford Motor Co.'s group vice president of design, will move to London and add a title: chief creative officer.
The move will allow Mays to focus on design at Ford's Premier Automotive Group brands: Aston Martin, Jaguar, Land Rover and Volvo and to monitor design at Ford of Europe.
Mays, 50, works at Ford's Dearborn, Mich., headquarters. He says he is not taking a lesser role in the company's design management.
"They're going to let me spend a couple of years in London, which is something I've been pushing hard," Mays says.
Mays will work at Ford's office in London's Soho district, the site of the company's former Ingeni studio. The advanced design studio closed last year, and the designers there returned to the various Ford brands. PAG Chairman Mark Fields still has offices there.
Peter Horbury, former Volvo design chief, will remain in charge of North American design while Martin Smith will run Ford's European design operations.
Mays' new job will enable him to work more closely with designers Ian Callum at Jaguar and Geoff Upex at Land Rover.
He also will focus on Volvo, which is without a chief designer after the departure of Henrik Otto this year. Mays says he has found a replacement for Otto but isn't ready to say who it is.
Mays says he will spend about 10 days a month in Dearborn. For the last 18 months, he says he has spent 10 days to two weeks out of each month in London.
"What we're doing is trying to work on the next decade of design direction for each of the individual brands," he says.
Mays says it was his idea to move to the United Kingdom.
London is "ground zero for media creativity," he says.
He says he is putting together a team of about five "strategic thinkers" to help him in London. Some are with the company and some are not. He won't say who the individuals are.
Autoweek.com
redriderbob