Pierre Leclercq replaces Mark Adams as Vauxhall Head of Design

Citroën’s design chief, Pierre Leclercq, has been appointed Head of Design for Vauxhall and Opel with immediate effect. He takes over from Mark Adams, who is retiring after almost 25 years with the company.

The 54-year-old Belgian national will continue to report to Florian Huettl, CEO of Opel-Vauxhall, and Gilles Vidal, Stellantis Head of Design for European Brands. Huettl thanked Adams for almost a quarter of a century of service and said Leclercq’s “global background and vision are tremendous assets in supporting the evolution of Vauxhall and Opel.”

Pierre Leclercq career at BMW, Kia and Citroën

Leclercq graduated from ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, California, in 1998. His career began at Ford’s Ghia design studio in Italy before he joined BMW Group in 2000, where he worked on MINI, Rolls-Royce and BMW. In 2011 he was appointed Head of Design for BMW M, the brand’s high-performance division.

Two years later he became Head of Design at Great Wall Motors in China, and in 2017 he moved to Kia Motors in South Korea as Design Director. He took charge of Citroën Design on 1 November 2018, leading work on the 2CV and 2CV Fourgonnette concepts shown at the Paris Motor Show, as well as the ELO, OLI, C3, C3 Aircross, Ami, C4, C4 X and New C5 Aircross.

Mark Adams and the Vauxhall design legacy

Born and raised in the UK, Adams studied mechanical engineering and completed a master’s degree in automotive design at the Royal College of Art in London. After Chief Designer and Executive roles at Ford in Europe and the US, he joined Vauxhall and Opel in 2002 as Director of Exterior Design. Promotion to Vice President of Design followed in 2007, a position he held longer than any of his predecessors.

Under his leadership came production models such as the Corsa, ADAM, Mokka, Astra and Insignia, alongside concepts including the 2003 Insignia Concept, 2013 Monza Concept, 2016 GT Concept and the 2018 GTX Experimental, which heavily inspired the current Mokka.

Bold and Pure design language and the STX Concept

Adams drove the ‘Bold and Pure’ design language, started in 2017, which introduced the ‘Vizor’ brand face, the Vauxhall ‘Compass’ and the interior ‘Pure Panel’, now used across every Vauxhall model. His most recent work, an evolution of that language, can be seen on the STX Concept, which premiered at the Paris Motor Show and points to the look of future Vauxhall models.

Supplied by Newspress UK (Vauxhall)

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