Kevin Rice has been appointed Chief Creative Officer at Pininfarina SpA. The former BMW, Mazda and Chery designer will fill the void left by erstwhile Design VP Carlo Bonzanigo, who left the Italian firm in September 2019. Rice will report directly to Pininfarina CEO Silvio Pietro Angori when he begins his new role on March 1st, 2020.
A British and German national, Kevin Rice was most recently Design VP of Chery Automobile based at the company European design studio in Raunheim, near Frankfurt, Germany. He will now be returning to Turin, Italy, where he worked under the direction of Giorgetto Giugiaro at Italdesign early on in his automotive design career.
In his new role, Rice will be directly responsible for the mobility design business unit and serve as the creative and strategic guide for all aspects of Pininfarina’s design activities, including mobility, industrial and experience design, and architecture, the company said in a statement.
Prior to returning to Mazda following a 13-year hiatus (where he oversaw work on the Mazda MX-5, CX3, and RX Vision concept), Rice held positions at BMW (where he was responsible for the exterior design of the F20 1 Series, F30 3 Series, and F32 4 Series), and Opel; a company he joined following his Transportation Design studies at Coventry University in 1986.
We wish Kevin Rice all the best in his new adventure.
