Peter Jones
Unlike Wolff, who previously worked as a designer for GM subsidiaries Holden and Cadillac before heading to Lincoln, Jones is a long-serving Blue Oval employee, having worked for Ford Australia for the past seven years.
He was the key designer for the interior of the Ford Ranger pickup truck sold overseas as well as the exterior of the Ford Falcon Ute sold in Australia.
Ford’s decision to pool its best talent from all over the world is part of the automaker’s ‘One Ford’ global vehicle development strategy. Jones was picked for the job at Lincoln after several rounds of interviews plus submitting work for an internal design competition.
Jones starts his new role next month in Detroit where he will report directly to Wolff and start work on the design of a whole new generation of Lincoln models. Both designers were graduates of Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.
Jones’ appointment shows that Australian designers remain highly regarded within the global automotive landscape. Another Aussie designer, Mike Simcoe, at one time was heading the exterior design team for GM’s North American operations and is currently the head of GM Asia Pacific’s design team. And as we all know, the VE Holden Commodore, which was fully engineered and designed in Australia, was sold as the Pontiac G8 in the U.S. before the brand went under, and its successor, the VF Commodore, will soon be on sale here once again as the new 2014 Chevrolet SS.
