Professor Gerry McGovern, chief creative officer at Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), has been appointed to the company's board of management.
The promotion comes just three months after McGovern landed in his current role, having previously served as design director for the Land Rover brand exclusively – a position that's now held by Massimo Frascella.
In his new capacity as a member of the board, McGovern will oversee "creative direction" for both the Jaguar and Land Rover brands, in a move that the company says "emphasises the vital importance of creativity to the ongoing prosperity of Jaguar Land Rover".
JLR CEO Thierry Bolloré said: "Gerry's expanded chief creative officer accountabilities include leadership of the design functions of both Jaguar and Land Rover, enhancing and developing the character, distinction and personality of each with his usual passion and energy.
"Also, to continue to elevate and protect our two great brands, Gerry’s role will now include creative direction across all of Jaguar and Land Rover’s global visual communications, ensuring a consistent look and feel, befitting each of their distinctive characters.
"Gerry’s innovative and pioneering approach will continue to influence and inspire us all, as well as enriching the experience of customers around the world.”
McGovern has been responsible for the designs of a number of core Land Rover models, including the Range Rover Evoque, Range Rover Sport and reborn Land Rover Defender. In his new position, he will focus additionally on the output of Jaguar.
McGovern hailed his new appointment as "an honour" and welcomed "the opportunity to lead my team in the creative reimagining of Jaguar as well as continuing the transformation of Land Rover".
"I remain convinced of design’s true value to build brand equity while ultimately enriching the lives of our customers,” he added.
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Let's look forward to a whole hew series of lop sided ugly Jaguars
As usual, the article tactfully remembers NOT to mention Discovery 5 as part of his portfolio, even though I would say it was quite a core model...
The man's been burned out for years.
I thought they were going to get rid of the chap, not promote him.
Discovery 5, new Defender. He's a one man disaster zone.
You have to wonder what sort of dirt he's got on the owners.
In my experience of working in the design & engineering department, of many car companies or any company for that matter, it's often far more easier to promote someone that get rid of them. Gets them away from doing the real work, hence most of my previous supervisors were complete idiots who couldn't work properly anymore so they were sidelined.