Bryan Nesbitt has been appointed executive director of design at General Motors’ European arm Opel, taking over from Martin Smith, who, the company said in a statement, “is leaving Opel to pursue other interests”. But news reports said Smith is heading to Ford of Europe as executive director of design.
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Nesbitt is currently executive director of design, body frame integral architectures at GM Design, responsible for exterior designs for all GMNA unibody vehicles. He 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 the restyle of the Holden-built Pontiac GTO performance coupe for US sale.
Nesbitt joined GM in 2001 as chief designer for Chevrolet, after seven years at DaimlerChrysler (where he designed the retro-look PT Cruiser), and moved to his current position in 2002.
GM vice president of design, Ed Welburn, said: “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,” added Welburn.
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By GlobalData“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.”
Nesbitt’s successor at GM Design will be announced later, GM’s statement said.
