Henrik Fisker is the founder, chairman and CEO of Fisker. Founded in 2016, with the vision of a clean future for all, and a mission of “making the world’s most sustainable vehicles.” The Fisker Karma was the world’s first luxury plug-in hybrid, launched in 2011. As president and CEO of BMW Designworks USA, Fisker created the Z8 Roadster while his stints at Aston Martin as board member and design director resulted in the turnaround of Aston Martin through the famed DB9/V8 Vantage.

Global Director of Exteriors at Magna, Larry Erickson has more than 25 years of experience in production car design, working on a broad range of vehicles from early advanced designs to final production releases. A graduate of Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, Erickson began his career at General Motors as an exterior and interior designer. He joined Ford Motor Company in 1999 as a chief designer in Europe and North America, working on a number of programmes, including the 2005 Mustang. Erickson chaired the Transportation Department at the College for Creative Studies (CCS) from 2008 to 2011 and was Design Director at Rivian Automotive prior to joining Magna Exteriors in 2017ton Martin as board member and design director resulted in the turnaround of Aston Martin through the famed DB9/V8 Vantage.

As the Exterior and CMF Design Director at Karma, Mr. Flynn overseas all aspects of exterior and CMF design for the Karma brand. While at Karma Flynn has been instrumental in developing the future of Karma’s Design DNA with examples like the SC1 and SC2 concept cars for which he was responsible. As Karma continues to push the limits of beauty and progression, we can look forward to Flynn and his team taking the philosophy and principles of these beautiful machines and applying them directly to the brand’s future vehicles. Prior to joining Karma, Flynn was Lead exterior designer at Mazda Design Americas where he led the design of the 4th generation MX5 and was instrumental in developing the Kodo design language and strategy through a variety of projects such as the RX Vision Concept car. Flynn’s final project at Mazda was leading the design of the RT24-P race car, a car which currently holds the record for fastest lap at Daytona Speedway.

Driving Purposeful Innovation, Thomas is responsible for product strategy and execution of the Automotive Concept Design products and setting the direction for Extended Reality (XR), including Alias, Create VR, VRED, and Shotgrid for the Design Studio. With over 20 years of experience, Thomas had the opportunity to experiment and learn in various roles, businesses and software products. From high-touch enterprise software for the creatives in the Automotive, Transportation and Industrial Design Studios to reimagining Autodesk’s technology for a broad consumer audience, including trends and technologies like the personalization of design, mobile computing, the advent of the creative class and the maker movement.

Derek Jenkins is the senior vice president of design and brand at Lucid. In this role, Jenkins oversees all design developments, including exterior and interior design, user experience, color and material, accessories, and the overall design strategy. Jenkins also spearheads Lucid’s brand creative and brand strategy. Before joining Lucid, Jenkins was the director of design at Mazda North America Operations where he oversaw all design developments locally and globally. He was the lead or contributing designer to the 2016 MX-5 Miata, Shinari Concept, CX-5, Mazda6, Mazda3, and the 2017 CX-9. Prior to his tenure with Mazda, Jenkins spent nine years as the Chief Designer for Volkswagen North America, credited with the Scirocco concept, Ragster and the Microbus concept, Concept T.

Robert Gelardi was appointed Chief Designer of the Lincoln interior studio in March, after serving as design manager on the all-new Ford Bronco. He is now responsible for the interior design of the entire Lincoln portfolio. With Ford Motor Company now for nearly 20 years, Gelardi has served in many roles in exterior, interior and component design for both Ford and Lincoln. He had a hand in designing the Jay Leno 1968 Bronco shown at SEMA in 2019. Prior to that, he spent four years working on the Lincoln Continental and Corsair and played a large role in the Quiet Flight design strategy that led to Lincoln Aviator and Navigator.

Joe spent nearly a decade in Silicon Valley working on human-machine interfaces (HMI) for Mercedes-Benz and NIO. As a hobby, he began developing video games and realized the potential for using Unreal Engine to improve HMI development. Joe joined Epic Games in 2020 to help automotive companies leverage Unreal Engine and reimagine the experience of driving a car.

Growing up in the automobile capital of America, Tom Kearns has a wide breadth of experience to bring to his role at Kia. Kearns graduated from the College of Creative Studies in Detroit and began his career at General Motors Corporation. Kearns spent 17 years with General Motors, working on several high-profile assignments before transitioning to Kia in 2004. Kearns currently serves as Senior Chief Designer—Kia Design Center America, in Irvine, California.

Vince Galante is responsible for global design development, coordination and alignment of the company’s user experience and Uconnect platform. Since joining the company in 2005, Galante has been responsible for interior and exterior design and the management and execution of various Stellantis products. His portfolio includes the recently introduced Chrysler Airflow concept, the all-new 2022 Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer and the Uconnect 5 platform. Galante earned a degree in transportation design from the College for Creative Studies and an executive MBA from Michigan State University.

Karl Smith is the U.S. Correspondent for Car Design News, a position he has held since 2013. He has written about architecture and design for the last three decades. Karl is also an author and publisher, with a new book, Brave New Car, published last autumn. And just to make sure his days are filled to overflowing, Karl has a busy architecture practice near Los Angeles, where he dreams-and designs- the future of homes, communities, and transportation for visionary clients.

TBA

Eric (Seung Hun) Beak is Head of Design at Volvo Car USA and leads a design team at the Volvo Design Concept Center located in Camarillo, California. Shortly after graduating from the ArtCenter College of Design, Eric started his design career with the Volkswagen Group Studio in Santa Monica, California, where he was involved with numerous projects across all VW Group brands. Since joining Volvo Cars, Eric’s focus has been on future production cars and the visionary projects that inspire the next generation of Volvo products.