Laurens van den Acker, the auto designer responsible for much of Mazda ’s current design language, will become Renault’s VP of Corporate design, replacing tenured designer Patrick le QuĂ©ment, who will retire later this year. A protege of Ford ’s J Mays, van den Acker’s most recently-debuted vehicle was the 2010 Mazda Mazda3 .
Since his placement as Mazda’s top designer in 2006, van den Acker’s creations have included the automaker’s Nagare and Ryuga concept cars, both of which heavily inspired the 2009 Mazda6 and 2010 Mazda3, as well as recent facelifts of the company’s MX-5 Miata, CX-7 and CX-9 (pictured).
The Dutch designer got his start at Turin, Italy’s Design System srl, where he worked on the Bugatti EB110′s interior. He worked with J Mays at Audi and he followed the designer to Ford in 1998.
