Big staff shuffle at BMW Group brings new design bosses for Rolls-Royce, Mini and BMW M
Domagoj Dukec is moving from BMW to Rolls-Royce to take over as director of design from Anders Warming, as part of a dramatic overhaul of the BMW Group’s design operations.
Warming has steered Rolls-Royce’s design department for three years, having previously worked under Chris Bangle at BMW and then been appointed chief of design at Mini.
Cars launched under his stewardship include the electric Spectre, the refreshed Cullinan and Phantom and the £20 million Droptail.
Warming is moving to become head of the BMW Group’s global Designworks operation, which takes a more overarching view of future mobility across the company’s entire portfolio.
Warming’s and Dukec’s new roles are among several significant changes for BMW Group Design, with director Adrian van Hooydonk rearranging the teams “to meet changing demands for future-oriented design”.
Ex-Polestar designer Maximillian Missoni, who has overseen the styling of each of the Swedish brand’s production EVs and concepts, has been hired to lead the design of upper mid-size and luxury-class BMW models, including those from the recently acquired Alpina brand.
Mini head designer Oliver Heilmer, meanwhile, will take over the design of the smaller and mid-size BMW cars, including from the M performance division. He will be replaced at Mini by Holger Hampf.
Rolls-Royce CEO Chris Brownridge hailed the “substantial and lasting” impact that Warming has had on the brand and said “his wealth of experience and creativity have instructed our future aesthetic direction”.
Dukec is well known as the long-time design chief at BMW, under whose stewardship the brand has completely overhauled the look of its cars, most notably embracing substantial new grilles for all its cars – a move that Dukec has acknowledged as “polarising” but “brand-shaping”.
He has been at BMW for more than 14 years and has served in various high-ranking positions – including as design director for the BMW i electrified sub-brand and then in the same role for the M performance division.
Before arriving in Munich, he was a senior designer for Peugeot and Citroën at the PSA Group, after starting his career in the late 1990s as an exterior designer at Volkswagen.
He will assume “overall responsibility for all design topics” at Goodwood, including the expansion of the highly lucrative Bespoke division.
Rolls-Royce hasn’t yet indicated what its next production car will be, following the launch last year of the Spectre, but it’s working on an update package for the Ghost and will be turning its attention to future EVs as it looks to go all-electric from 2030.
