Volvo Car styling chief Peter Horbury is moving to the main name brand of Volvo’s Chinese owners, Geely, as senior vice president design. He helped refresh Volvo’s image with new models including the XC90.
A decision on who will succeed Horbury as Volvo head of design has not been made. “The process is ongoing,” said a Volvo spokesman, who added that the design departments at the two automakers are run independently.
In a statement about the change, Volvo CEO Stefan Jacoby said: “Peter Horbury has played a very important role for Volvo’s design during a long period of time and has a legendary position in the automotive world. I wish him all success in his new role within Geely Group.”
The 61-year-old Briton is credited with moving Volvo away from their boxy roots to the swoopier models found in the automaker’s current lineup. He began his career with the Swedish automaker in 1991 as head of design, helping to create new models including the XC90 SUV before he moved in 2002 to Ford’s Premier Automotive Group. There, he oversaw design at all four PAG brands: Aston Martin, Jaguar, Land Rover and Volvo. Two years later, Horbury moved to Detroit to become executive director of design at Ford, before returning to Volvo in 2009 to assume the role of vice president design. In 2010, Zhejiang Geely bought Volvo from Ford.
