The online industry publication Motor Authority has reported that effective April 1 Anthony Lo will become the new chief of design at both Ford and Lincoln. Lo will report to Hau Thai-Tang, Ford’s head of product development. Thai-Tang said he is excited to have Lo onboard as the company continues to move forward with an increasingly tech-laden, connected and electrified vehicle lineup. He said the industry is evolving rapidly and that Ford needs to win customer trust by staying on the leading edge of that trend.
Lo’s work designing concept vehicles demonstrates his advanced ideas and vision. Backing that is his more than 30 years of experience in the auto industry with General Motors and several manufacturers in Europe. He earned a master’s degree in automotive design at the Royal College of Art in London and in 1987 started his career at Lotus where he was responsible for the brand’s upgrades made to the Vauxhall Carlton.
He then had brief stints at Mercedes-Benz and Audi before joining GM in 2004, where he worked on a number of concept and production vehicles for Saab and Opel, both of which were owned by GM at the time. For the past decade, Lo has been at Renault.
If your vision of a Renault is a conservative hatchback, think again. Check out the amazing Symbioz concept car introduced on Lo’s watch by Renault in 2018.
Lincoln fans will notice a familiar design cue, the center opening doors made famous by the Continentals of the 1960s and reintroduced in 2019. Only time will tell how Lo’s leadership will impact Lincoln and Ford’s designs going forward. But one thing is sure. They will be different.
Meanwhile, Ford is also saying farewell to Moray Callum who will step down from the top design role there on April 1, retiring after almost a 40-year career in the auto industry.
Callum is the brother of equally talented automotive designer Ian Callum and has been in the industry for almost four decades, with half of that time spent at Ford.
Callum was with Ford twice during his career, split by a stint at Mazda. The first time was from 1995 until 2001 and the second was from 2006 until now. As a result he’s had a hand in shaping numerous Ford products, including recent stars like the modern Bronco, the Mustang Mach-E, and the GT supercar.
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