New design boss for Alfa

By Jack Rix

Motor Industry

14 June 2007 11:42

Frank Stephenson, the man credited with designing the new Mini and Fiat's retro 500, has been appointed to head up Alfa Romeo's design centre.

He replaces Wolfgang Egger, responsible for the swooping 8C Competizione, who left earlier this year to join Audi. Stephenson joins Alfa at a crucial time, prior to its re-entry into the US market. The multi-lingual Stephenson (he speaks French, Spanish, Norwegian, Arabic, English, Turkish, German and, usefully, Italian) attended the Art Center College of Design in Pasedena, California. After short stints with GM and Ford, he settled with BMW where he penned the current masterpiece in retro-modern design, the new Mini. He then moved to become design director of Ferrari and Maserati between 2002 and 2005, where he worked on the MC12, F430 and 612 Scaglietti. For the past two years, he has worked on the new Fiat 500 - which we finally drive this summer. Come back to CAR Online in early July for the first full test.

By Jack Rix