BMW Gets Former Bugatti Veyron & Skoda Chief Designer Jozef Kaban

Jozef Kaban will replace Karim Habib as head of design at BMW, while the latter will move to Volkswagen. Jozef Kaban, a Slovakian will lead a team of designers responsible for the BMW brand and will report to BMW Group design director Adrian van Hooydonk.

Skoda in a statement thanked the designer for his work with the manufacturer, saying he has "significantly influenced the design and emotionality of the brand". "We would like to thank Jozef Kabaň for his performance and wish him well in his future endeavours,"

Kaban joined Skoda back in 2008 and was instrumental in designing the current range of Skoda models including the Octavia, Fabia, new Kodiaq SUV, and the forthcoming second-generation Yeti.

A little more of Jozef Kaban, he studied at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava, Slovakia, from 1991. In 1997, as a student supported by Volkswagen, Kaban received a Master of Arts degree from London's Royal College of Art.

As a student and under project with Volkswagen, he participated in the Skoda design competition and came second, which led Volkswagen to offer a job at the company as junior assistant of design and later moved as an exterior designer.

He is responsible for designing for the original Bugatti Veyron EB16.4 under the direction of Volkswagen's former head of design, Hartmut Warkuss. In 2003, he was made the head of exterior design before he went to become the head of design operation at Skoda in 2008.

At BMW, Kaban will be responsible for the future of the company's SUV segment especially the X2.

Below is an extensive photo gallery of the Bugatti Veyron, click to view.