25.2.2004
Bryan Nesbitt to become new Chief Designer for Opel / Vauxhall

Effective immediately, Bryan Nesbitt is appointed Executive Director of Design at Opel, taking over from Martin Smith, who is leaving Opel to pursue other interests.

Effective immediately, Bryan Nesbitt (35) is appointed Executive Director of Design at Opel, taking over from Martin Smith, who is leaving Opel to pursue other interests.

Nesbitt currently is Executive Director of Design, Body Frame Integral Architectures at GM Design. He is responsible for exterior designs for all GMNA unibody vehicles, including small, midsize, large, and luxury cars, and all unibody crossover vehicles. Nesbitt led the design of the Chevy SS and Pontiac G6 concept vehicles, as well as production designs for the Pontiac G6 sedan, coupe and convertible, Pontiac Solstice roadster, and Pontiac GTO performance coupe. Nesbitt also leads the GMNA program to define and strengthen divisional brand identities. Nesbitt joined GM in 2001 as Chief Designer for Chevrolet, and took his current position in 2002.

He came to GM after seven years at DaimlerChrysler. Born in 1969 in Phoenix, Arizona, Nesbitt is a graduate of the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. He also studied architecture and industrial design at Georgia Institute of Technology.

" Bryan has done outstanding work in North America and will take his strong conceptual skills, his ability to inspire design staffs, and his understanding of design quality and perception to Opel, where he will head up a strong design team in a company with a great design tradition", said Ed Welburn, GM Vice President of Design. "This move to Europe has been planned for almost a year. With a lot of momentum spurred by the new Astra, now's the right time to bring in a fresh set of ideas."

" Nesbitt's work on small and midsize cars for North America already involves a close working relationship with Europe," said Welburn. "Both the Pontiac G6, which shares its architecture with the Opel Vectra and Saab 9-3, and the Chevy Cobalt, which is an evolution of the Opel Astra design, involved significant collaboration between Opel and GM North America Design. Nesbitt is also involved in the design of several new global architectures, including the Kappa architecture that forms the foundation for the Pontiac Solstice."

Carl-Peter Forster, Chairman and Managing Director of Adam Opel AG, added: "Our recent designs in Europe, as exemplified by the new Astra, have been extremely well received by customers and industry observers, and we feel very well positioned for our current product offensive. The strong quality feel that we now see in all aspects of our design, both exterior and interior, has been widely recognized. Bryan is very much aware of that development and will continue to lead us further down that path. He comes to join our team at an exciting moment, and we all look forward to working with him at Opel."

" We are grateful for Martin's contribution and wish him well in his new endeavours."

A successor to Nesbitt in his current position at GM Design will be appointed at a later date.