Ford Motor Company executive director of automotive design, Peter Horbury, will be the keynote speaker at this year’s SMMT Annual Dinner. He has been confirmed alongside new SMMT president, Roger Putnam, at an event which is themed the challenge of design.
Peter Horbury was made executive director of design for all of Ford’s domestic products in 2004. He was previously head of design for Ford’s Premier Automotive Group (PAG), responsible for product design strategy for Aston Martin, Jaguar, Land Rover and Volvo.
An impressive career started at Chrysler UK in 1974, working on the Alpine and the Horizon, before moving to Ford to work on the Sierra project. More recently, he headed the design team for the Volvo XC90 and award-winning Volvo Safety Concept Car.
Commenting on the news, SMMT chief executive Christopher Macgowan said, ‘We are delighted to have secured Peter Horbury to speak at this year’s Annual Dinner. Who better to remind us that in automotive design, Britain can say with absolute confidence home grown talent leads the world.’
The Annual Dinner, which takes place on 22 November at the London Hilton, will also be an opportunity to explore some of the wider issues in vehicle design. This includes the cost of balancing customer demands for higher specification and better safety, with wider legislative and social aims to cut weight, increase recyclability and lower emissions.
Tickets for this year’s Annual Dinner are availableby clicking on the download below. Details of a third speaker will be confirmed within the next few weeks.
Notes to editors:
1. Peter Horbury was born in 1950. He received a masters degree in automotive design from the Royal College of Art in 1974 and was named Autocar’s designer of the year in 1998. During his career he has been involved in the design of more than 30 cars, as well as trucks, buses and motorcycles.
2. Other high-profile British designers include Trevor Creed, head of design for Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep; Simon Cox, director of advanced design GM; Gerry McGovern, director of advanced design Land Rover; Steve Lewis, director of design SEAT; Ian Cameron, chief designer Rolls-Royce and Ian Callum, design director, Jaguar.
Book before 1 July and get tickets at 2004 prices!
Click on the link below to download the booking form.
