Alejandro Mesonero-Romanos Aguilar (born in Madrid, 1968) is a Spanish car designer.
Alejandro Mesonero-Romanos, born in Madrid in 1968, is the son of the engineer José Luis Mesonero-Romanos Sánchez-Pol and Sonsoles Aguilar Barbadillo. [1] He is the youngest of seven siblings and great-great-grandson of the prose writer and one of the major figures of literary costumbrismo in Spain Ramón de Mesonero Romanos (1803–1882). [2] [3] From an early age he became interested in the world of the automobile. [2]
After finishing high school, he moved to Barcelona to study at the ELISAVA School of Design and Engineering, after which he worked for a year in the now-defunct Associated Designers design studio, also in Barcelona. [2] His first work experience in the automotive field was at Carrocerías Ayats in Arbúcies, Girona, specialized in luxury coaches. [2] [4] Having been offered a scholarship from the English government, he moved to London to study for a master's degree in Automotive Design at the Royal College of Art. [5] [6]
In 1995, he joined SEAT's Design department in Martorell, where his brother Carlos had been working since 1985 [7] in a time when the company's range was in the process of modernization. His involvement in the conception of the SEAT Bolero prototype, [4] which eventually would not evolve into a series production car, made the Volkswagen Group become interested in him, so in 1996 he joined the Design Center Europe that the consortium had in Sitges. [2] During his stay at the center, he was responsible for the exterior design of several SEAT, Volkswagen and Audi models. [8]
In 2001, he signed with Renault and moved to Paris, where he led several design projects of the French company, such as the Laguna Coupé, [6] and since 2007 he served as its Advanced Design director. [8]
Between 2009 and 2011, he resided in South Korea, where he was the design director of Renault Samsung Motors. [5] During this period, he headed the development of the SM7 Mk2 luxury saloon. [9]
In the summer of 2011, he accepted an offer from Walter de Silva to return and replace the Belgian Luc Donckerwolke as SEAT's Design director, since in August of that same year the latter would take over as head of Advanced Design of the entire VW Group consortium. [5] His first work at the Martorell company was the SEAT IBL, a prototype presented at the Frankfurt Motor Show in 2011, a project in which he completed a design started by Donckerwolke. [10] The IBL was intended to set the design direction onto which the new saloon of the brand replacing the SEAT Exeo was meant to be created. [11]
During his stay at SEAT, the SEAT Ateca, the first SUV of the Spanish brand, was designed.
In July 2020, he signed again with Renault reporting to Laurens van den Acker, EVP, Corporate Design and member of Groupe Renault's executive committee. [12] After having been head of design for Dacia, in April 2021 he has left Renault Group [13] to join Stellantis, where he took the position of Head of Design for Alfa Romeo. [14]
SEAT S.A. is a Spanish car manufacturer, that sells its vehicles under the SEAT and Cupra brands. Founded on 9 May 1950, it was created as a joint venture between Spain's government-owned Instituto Nacional de Industria (INI), which held a majority stake, Spanish private banks, and Fiat. After being listed as an independent automaker for 36 years, the Spanish government sold SEAT to the Volkswagen Group in 1986, and it remains a fully owned subsidiary of the Group.
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Luc Donckerwolke is a Belgian automotive designer, president, and chief creative officer of the Hyundai Motor Group and the Genesis automotive brand. Prior to joining the Hyundai Motor Group, he was the design director at Volkswagen Group's Bentley, Lamborghini, Škoda, and Audi brands. In 2022, a jury panel of 102 journalists among 33 countries named Donckerwolke the "World Car Person of the Year" for significantly impacting the automotive industry.
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The Renault Samsung SM7 is an executive car or full-size car that was produced by the South Korean manufacturer Renault Samsung Motors from 2004 to 2020.
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The Volkswagen Group MQB platform is the company's strategy for shared modular design construction of its transverse, front-engine, front-wheel-drive layout automobiles. It was first introduced in the Volkswagen Golf Mk7 in late 2012. Volkswagen spent roughly $8bn developing this new platform and the cars employing it. The platform underpins a wide range of cars from the supermini class to the mid size SUV class. MQB allows Volkswagen to assemble any of its cars based on this platform across all of its MQB ready factories. This allows the Volkswagen group flexibility to shift production as needed between its different factories. Beginning in 2012, Volkswagen Group marketed the strategy under the code name MQB, which stands for Modularer Querbaukasten, translating from German to "Modular Transversal Toolkit" or "Modular Transverse Matrix". MQB is one strategy within VW's overall MB program which also includes the similar MLB strategy for vehicles with longitudinal engine orientation.
Luca de Meo is an Italian automotive executive who is currently the CEO of Renault Group.
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London Motor Show, formerly the London Motorfair, is a motor show in England. It was held biannually at Earls Court Exhibition Centre, from 1977 to 1999. When the event won the support of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders and P&O Events, in October 1993, the name was changed from the London Motorfair to The London Motor Show.
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