Pininfarina appoints Felix Kilbertus as its new chief creative officer

Pininfarina has appointed renowned automotive designer Felix Kilbertus as its new Chief Creative Officer. He will be the creative and strategic guide at a Group level on all aspects of Design (Mobility, Product & Experience Design and Architecture). Effective April 17, 2023, Felix succeeds Kevin Rice, who left the company last December.

Reporting directly to CEO Silvio Angori, Felix Kilbertus will supervise all the Pininfarina design teams located in their geographical areas (Italy, China, United States).

 At Pininfarina, Felix will join a multicultural line-up of stylists and designers and help consolidate the company’s global leadership position in design and focus on guiding clients towards the future of mobility, architecture and experience design. Pininfarina’s roadmap incorporates the future needs of society and its citizens and places the ongoing merger of physical and digital realities – the phygital nature of design development – at its heart.

 With a 20-year career in automotive design, Felix most recently held the role of Head of Exterior Design at Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, where he was responsible for the design development of the brand’s product range since 2017, leading a team of creatives in Munich, Germany and Goodwood, UK. Previously, Felix held senior design positions at Renault, Nissan, Fiat and also Pininfarina, where he was a lead designer from 2011 to 2014.

Born in Austria 44 years ago, his creative journey has taken him to France, Japan, Italy and Germany. He began his long and distinguished international career after completing Masters in Transportation Design (Strate College, France) and Industrial Design (UAID, Austria). In 2003, he started as exterior designer at Renault Design, where he went on to hold positions in various studios until 2011, focusing on advanced and production designs. From 2008 to 2010, he joined Nissan Global Design Center in Atsugi, Japan, as part of an exchange within the Renault-Nissan Alliance, working on concepts for Nissan and Infiniti brands.

In 2011, he joined the Pininfarina design center in Cambiano, Torino, as team leader for automotive exterior design development. Among other projects, he led the design process and exterior styling for BMW Pininfarina Gran Lusso Coupé concept, unveiled at Villa D’Este 2013. His design adventure continued at Fiat Centro Stile in Turin, with a new challenge: from 2014 to 2017, Felix worked as exterior chief designer responsible for the exterior design development of Fiat brand passenger vehicles.