Skoda Names Oliver Stefani As New Head Of Design

Skoda has announced that Oliver Stefani will step into the role of Head of Design for the Czech brand, replacing Jozef Kaban who left the Volkswagen Group in February for BMW.

Stefani’s previous role saw him leading the Volkswagen brand’s exterior design department, having led the design of models including the current Polo, Tiguan, and Golf amongst others.

Having joined the Volkswagen Group in 1992, Stefani has also worked within the design departments of Seat and Audi. Stefani’s most recent work also includes the Volkswagen I.D. concept series with the EV concepts providing a glimpse of the electric platform that both Volkswagen and Skoda will be working with in the future.

“In recent years, Skoda’s design has developed extremely well. Most recently, we have also transferred the new and expressive design language to our SUV models,” Skoda CEO Bernhard Maier said. “Now, Oliver Stefani will instigate the next stage of development. He will design our cars to have even greater emotional resonance and will lead them into the era of digitalisation and the electrification of vehicle manufacturing.

Skoda’s recent design-led movement incorporates the brand’s ‘simply clever’ features with simplified exterior forms and the incorporation of lighting elements inspired by Czech glass art and sculpture.

Stefani, 53, studied product design in Germany and completed his education at the Art Centre College of Design in the United States, the same college that turned out designers including former BMW designer, Chris Bangle, and Ford design chief, J Mays.

Oliver Stefani will officially start his new role at Skoda on the 1st of September.

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