Who's Where: Kevin Rice becomes Mazda Europe’s design director as Peter Birtwhistle retires

Mazda Europe has a new design director. Effective 1 September, Kevin Rice will succeed Peter Birtwhistle, who retires from the post of chief designer, bringing to an end a 26-year career with Mazda.

Following graduation from Coventry University's transport design course, Rice, 50, began his professional career at Opel in 1986. He then moved to Italdesign, where he spent three years, beginning in 1988.

This was followed by his first, five-year stint at Mazda's European R&D center in Oberursel, Germany as senior designer, where he contributed to proposals for the RX-8 and led the development of the Neospace show car that debuted at the 1999 Frankfurt motor show.

Rice then moved to the post of design manager at BMW, where he worked for 13 years. Here, he worked on the exterior development of models like the 2007 Concept 1 Series tii and the current 3 and 4 Series.

He then returned to Mazda last autumn, taking up the role of creative director back in Oberursel.

Meanwhile, Birtwhistle joined Mazda in 1988 and has led Mazda Europe's design department since mid-1999.

Talking about the appointment, Mazda Motor Europe President & CEO Jeff Guyton said "We are fortunate to have a successor [to Birtwhistle] of such great talent. Kevin will continue Peter's work, giving Mazda the necessary continuity while at the same time representing a new generation of designers."

By Tom Phillips