Peter Horbury is probably an unfamiliar name.
Born in Alnwick in 1950, his family moved to Sheffield and he attended King Edward VII School between the ages of 7 to 11. It was here that he started doodling car designs.
After moving to Darlington, Horbury attended art school in Newcastle, going on to complete a master’s at the Royal College of Art in London.
His first job was at Chrysler, before moving to Ford in Essex working on the Ford Sierra programme and joining Volvo in 1979.
After leaving to set up his own business, he re-joined Volvo in Sweden as Head of Design from 1991. His Volvo ECC concept car influenced designs for years to come including the S40, S60, S80 and XC90 SUV.
When Ford bought Volvo, he became Head of Design at Ford’s Premier Automotive Group including Aston Martin, Jaguar, Land Rover as well as Volvo.
Horbury later moved to Detroit and influenced the design of the Ford Fusion, Ford Focus and Ford Taurus as well as remodelling the Lincoln car brand.
In 2009 he returned to Volvo in Gothenburg, remaining when Chinese company Geely bought the brand in 2010. He is now Executive Vice-President, Design, overseeing Geely Auto, Lotus, Lynk and Co and Volvo.
Not bad for a lad from King Ted’s.
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