Michelin Challenge Design announces 2007 jury

The safety focus of this year's challenge requires designers to consider the vehicle's occupants as well as those who share the road traveling in other vehicles or as pedestrians. Entries will be evaluated for their accident-avoidance, occupant-protection and pedestrian-safety characteristics. Judges are also looking at the commercial viability and overall visual appeal of the work.

Each work submitted for the 2007 Michelin Challenge Design will be reviewed by a jury of eight judges listed below:

Greg Brew - Director of Industrial Design at Polaris Industries Inc. - the company responsible for the design, engineering, manufacturing and marketing of snowmobiles, all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), Victory motorcycles and the Polaris Ranger line of utility vehicles. Brew's extensive design career includes Fiat Centro Stile, BMW AG, Director of Transportation Design for DesignWorks USA as well as a variety of teaching positions in Europe and the United States.

Patrick le Quement - Vice-President Corporate Design, Renault - also serves as a design consultant for Nissan Motors at the board level. Prior to joining Renault in 1987, he designed for Ford in the United Kingdom and was director of corporate design and founder of the Strategic and Advanced Design Centre for Volkswagen. le Quement has a gift for designing avant-garde cars for the mainstream. He has led the development of numerous vehicles including the concept vehicles Argos (1994), Talisman (2001) and the Ellypse (2002).

Ruben Perfetti - Director of Design, Volvo Trucks North America - has been designing commercial trucks for the American market for over 13 years. Before Volvo, Perfetti worked at Freightliner Corporation in Portland, Oregon.

Frank Saucedo - Director of Advanced Design at General Motors in Los Angeles - oversees a staff of 30 designers, sculptors, analysts and engineers. He joined GM in 1984 as a designer with the company's European subsidiary Adam Opel AG. He returned to the States and served in the capacity of Assistant and eventually Chief of Design in the company's Advanced Concepts Center. After a brief tenure at the helm of Volkswagen's Simi Valley, California, design center, he returned to GM in 2002 to lead the LA-based team. Since opening, the studio has spearheaded the development of several noteworthy projects, including the Chevrolet Borrego, Chevrolet SS concept and Pontiac Solstice.

Stewart Reed - Michelin Challenge Design Jury Chairman (for the second consecutive year) - is Chairman of the Transportation Design Department at Art Center College of Design. Stewart Reed Design in Holland, Michigan, opened its doors in 1994 to consult with the automotive and consumer manufacturing industries. First among his many designs were the Meyers Manx and Manx SR. Reed's design career includes nine years at Chrysler's advanced design department; six years as the chief designer of Toyota's California advanced design studio; and eight years as vice president of design with Prince Corporation, now part of Johnson Controls.

Anthony C. Stein, Ph.D. - President and Technical Director, Safety Research Associates, Inc. - has been studying various aspects of human operator performance since 1975. His research has concentrated on impaired operator behavior (e.g. understanding how alcohol, drugs and fatigue affect driver behavior), vision and visibility, and advanced vehicle technology. Stein holds research faculty positions in the Department of Neurology at the University of Kansas' School of Medicine and in the Institute for Research in Safety and Transport at Murdoch University in Perth, Western Australia.

Freeman Thomas - Strategic Design Director, Ford Motor Company - leads the advanced design teams in California and Michigan. In addition to developing product design strategies and concept vehicles for Ford, Lincoln and Mercury, his team collaborates with the company's Advanced Product Creation team to create compelling new production vehicles. Before Ford, Thomas was head of DaimlerChrysler's Pacifica Advanced Design Center. He also served as vice president of DaimlerChrysler Advanced Product Design Strategy, chief designer at Volkswagen and in design positions with Audi and Porsche. His design career includes the 500-hp Dodge Tomahawk motorcycle, the 'Noble American Sedan' strategy that evolved into the production Chrysler 300C, the Audi TT concept and the Volkswagen Concept 1, known today as the New Beetle.

Geoff Wardle - Associate Chair, Art Center College of Design, Transportation Design Department - has spent over 20 years as a professional designer and design educator. Companies he's worked with include British Leyland, Chrysler, PSA, International Automotive Design (IAD), SAAB Automobile, Ford Australia and Tatra of the Czech Republic. He was Chair of Transportation Design at Art Center College of Design's campus in Switzerland, before returning to the school's Pasadena campus.

Complete information on the Michelin Challenge Design, including themes, news and details, is available at www.michelinchallengedesign.com

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