Rolls-Royce has appointed ex-BMW and Skoda designer Jozef Kabaň as its new head of design, following the departure of Giles Taylor to Chinese firm Hongqi last year.
Slovakian Kabaň has a long history in vehicle design, having become one of the Volkswagen Group’s youngest designers aged 20.
In 1997, he was awarded a Master of Arts degree from London’s Royal College of Art before earning global recognition just a year later when he was named project lead for the exterior of the Bugatti Veyron.
This success led to Kabaň heading up Skoda’s exterior design department from 2008, during which time he is credited with having “significantly influenced the design and emotionality of the brand”.
As well as penning the current Octavia and Fabia, Kabaň was one of the lead designers behind the brand’s current Kodiaq SUV.