Fabio Filippini is moving
from his most recent position as Vice President of
Interior Design at the Renault Group to become the new Design Director-Chief Creative
Officer at Pininfarina, where he will report directly to CEO Silvio Pietro Angori. The 47 year old from Vercelli
brings with him experience gained in France, Japan and
Spain.Filippini will
take up his new position from April 1st. He replaces
Lowie Vermeersch, who had been Designer Director since
he replaced Ken Okuyama who was fired in 2007. The
Belgian designer had in fact been with Pininfarina for
more than a decade and under his recent watch as Design
Director the well-received Ferrari 458 Italia was
created while the innovative Bluecar project was
presented as were the Sintesi and 2uettotanta concepts.
Vermeersch left the Turin-based company late last year to
pursue other professional opportunities.
Fabio Filippini is a
designer and manager with an Italian
education and international experience in big automotive
multinational groups. He graduated in Architecture and
Industrial Design at the Faculty of Architecture of the
Milan Politecnico and then worked in a number of other
countries.
After having created and directed the
satellite design studio Renault Design Paris and
developed the design 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 the
French carmaker's
brands: Renault, Dacia and RSM. In parallel, he also managed
the Renault Design activities for Latin America, through
the satellite studio Renault Design Latin America which
is located in São
Paulo.
Filippini joins a team
that features one hundred and eighty skilled stylists
and designers; however he arrives during a troubled
period for the eight decade old design and engineering
firm just as it finally closes in on a sale. Now
shorn of the contract manufacturing division which
racked up huge losses over the last five years and
brought the company to its knees financially,
Pininfarina is in the closing stages of being sold by
its creditors banks, with the range of suitors eyeing it
up including Austro-Canadian car components manufacturer
Magna Steyr and China's SAIC. Despite its mounting
problems Pininfarina's design division has remained
buoyant and is currently
right at the top of its game with winners including Ferrari's 458 Italia
sports car and the forthcoming FF, which
dramatically takes the Prancing Horse heading in a new direction, as
well as the equally stunning "New" Stratos project,
all proving that the company hasn't taken its eye off
the ball. Filippini will also have to keep pulling
rabbits out of the hat to preserve the long standing
relationship with Ferrari and Maserati depending on the
identity of the new owners.
