Holt Ware becomes Design Director at GM-PATAC

Holt Ware has been appointed to design director at GM's Pan Asia Technical Automotive Center (PATAC) joint venture in Shanghai, China. He replaces Friedhelm Engler who has since relocated to Germany to lead the Advanced Design Studio, a position vacated by Anthony Lo earlier this year.

Ware's new role at GM-PATAC puts him in charge of designers and modelers working in China's leading automotive engineering and design facility. "We have a creative team of about 130 plus people and growing," Ware told CDN.

Prior to joining PATAC earlier this year, Ware was creative design director at GM do Brazil in Sao Paulo, "It was a terrific time", Ware said, speaking of his tenure working under the direction of Carlos Barba. While in Brazil, Ware played a role in the development of several key models, including the Agile five-door hatchback.

Ware began his GM career in the Buick Design Studio in 1993 and moved to the Cadillac Design Studio one year later, where he served as lead designer. While at the Cadillac studio, Ware worked models such as the 1998 STS and 2000 DTS. Three years later, he was appointed to lead designer and then to design manager in GM's Advance Design group in Warren, Michigan. "We had a lot of fun working with internal product concepts for new SUV's, crossover and trucks," he said.

Designing trucks was the next step in Ware's career progression and from 2000 through 2003 he served as design manager in the Hummer Design Studio. He later became Epsilon Design Manager in GM's Midsize Car Studio, which developed the 2008 Chevrolet Malibu and 2010 Buick LaCrosse.

By Eric Gallina