Although his appointment was announced last September, Flavio Manzoni has now been officially confirmed as Ferrari's new Design Director and has started his duties where he will report to CEO Amedeo Felisa.

Although his appointment was announced last September, Flavio Manzoni has now been officially confirmed as Ferrari's new Design Director and has started his duties where he will report to CEO Amedeo Felisa.

"Flavio Manzoni, 45, has been appointed Ferrari’s new Design Director," read a statement issued in Maranello. "In his new role, Manzoni will report directly to the CEO and will be responsible for creating and defining the styling of Ferrari’s new cars," the statement added.

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. As an art and music enthusiast, Manzoni also plays the piano and co-authored the book L’automobile italiana (Giunti). He has been a member of the iF-Award Product Design jury since 2007.