Mattin to oversee design at Volvo

Volvo Car Corporation has appointed Steve Mattin, currently senior design manager at DaimlerChrysler, to the position of vice-president and design director.

He replaces Henrik Otto, who took up the role following the promotion of Peter Horbury to executive director of design at Ford’s Premier Automotive Group in 2003. Otto left last summer and Volvo has been recruiting since then. Mattin will start on 1 May.

Mattin will be in charge of various creative hubs at the Ford-owned group, including the design centre at Volvo Car Corporation in Gothenburg, Sweden, the Volvo design studio in Barcelona and the Volvo Monitoring and Concept Centre in California. He will oversee the design strategies for a raft of models currently being developed and will be ‘looking after the future look and feel’ for Volvo, says a spokesman for the company.

Mattin, who worked at DaimlerChrysler for 17 years, will report to Volvo Cars president and chief executive officer Hans-Olov Olsson, as well as J Mays, group vice- president of design and chief creative officer of Volvo parent the Ford Motor Company.