Flavio Manzoni (top) has been responsible for styling the latest generation VW Golf model, while the many cars he has worked during a busy design career include the well-received Lancia Grandturismo concept (bottom).

Flavio Manzoni is to return to the Fiat Group fold in January to become Design Director at Ferrari where he will be responsible for setting up a brand new styling centre which will see Maranello drawing more of its design work in-house and away from the financially struggling Pininfarina studio which is usually responsible for the design of Prancing Horse sports cars.

He will start work on January 1, 2010, and as well as bringing design work in house he will be tasked with developing a new brand identity for Ferrari. Manzoni will report directly to Ferrari's Managing Director Amedeo Felisa. It is unclear what will happen to the current Ferrari Design Director Donato Coco who has held the post since November 2005, although there is speculation he will move to a new post within the Fiat Group. The previous Ferrari Design Director, Frank Stephenson, left Maranello four years ago to head up the studio responsible for Fiat, Lancia and Fiat LCV design before switching to Alfa Romeo and then leaving to join McLaren.

Flavio Manzoni was born in Nuoro, Sardinia on January 7, 1965, and he graduated with a degree in architecture specialising in industrial design, from the University of Florence. Manzoni joined Lancia Centro Stile in 1993 where he worked on a string of highly regarded concept and production designs. In 1996 he became responsible for interior design. During his first stint at Lancia he was responsible for the innovative, forward-looking interior of the Dialogos that set forth many new design language ideas for the brand, as well as working on the Lybra and Thesis, while during this period he also assisted in the interior design of the Maserati 3200 GT.

He switched to Barcelona to join the SEAT Style Centre in 1999 working in the same area, interiors, and he left his mark on the Tango and Salsa concept cars as well as the production Altea and Leon/Toledo. Two years later he was back at Lancia, this time as design chief, and during this tenure he led several projects that defined Lancia's modern-day styling, including two key concept cars, the Granturismo, which evolved a year later into the Granturismo Stilnovo. He also headed up the stunning Fulvia concept coupé project. During this time with Lancia led the design team that shaped the Fiat Punto Series 2 based Ypsilon and Musa, two highly successful production cars that are still going from strength-to-strength.

In 2004 Manzoni was promoted to the Head of Design position at Fiat Centro Stile where he was responsible for the designs of the Fiat, Lancia and LCV brands. During his tenure the Fiat Grande Punto was realised, although much of this was the work of Giugiaro and Bertone, as well as the Multipla facelift, while he oversaw the early stages of design projects that eventually gave way to the acclaimed Fiat 500, Bravo and Qubo.

Two years later he jumped ship to Audi (on December 1, 2006) teaming up again with Walter da'Silva and just a few months later stepped up a notch to become the Head of Creative design for the entire Volkswagen Group. In this role he has been responsible for the Up! and BlueMotion concepts, the Sirocco coupé, and the latest restyling of the long-running Golf and Polo model.