share on BufferJens Manske, current Head of the Škoda Auto Design Department, will leave his position and join the VW Group Design Department on 1 February, 2008.
Jens Manske’s team has designed the next-generation Superb, several other vehicles the production of which is being prepared, as well as a number of concepts over the period of his engagement in the Company, including the Skoda Joyster Concept and the VW Iroc concept.
At the VW Group Design Department led by Walter de Silva, Jens Manske is going to be responsible for new tasks.
The successor to Mr. Manske is Jozef Kaban, a manager who has been responsible for exterior design at Audi until now.
About Jozef Kaban
Currently Head of Audi AG Exterior Design Centre, Jozef Kaban was born on 4 January, 1973 in Námestov, Slovakia.
In 1991, after graduating from a school of art design (four-year studies), he started to study at the Academy of Fine Arts & Design in Bratislava, Slovakia (majoring in Product And Industrial Design).
When still at the Academy, he took part in a Škoda brand designer competition organised by the Volkswagen Group, finished second and was offered a job at Volkswagen, first as a Junior/Assistant Designer, later as an Exterior Designer.
The person that discovered him for Volkswagen AG (where Jozef Kaban worked until 2003) and that also supported him substantially was Hartmut Warkuss.
In 1997, as a student supported by Volkswagen AG, Jozef Kaban received a Master of Art at the Royal College of Art (Vehicle Design), thus becoming the first Slovak-born graduate in the entire history of the Royal College of Art.
Still in that year, Jozef Kaban received the “Giorgio Giugiaro Award for Design Innovation“ for his futuristic car concept.
Commissioned by the Volkswagen Group, he became responsible for developing the design of the Bugatti Veyron in 1999, and then worked in that position from the time of the first sketches until the point of launching mass production.
Looking for new challenges, Jozef Kaban left Wolfsburg for Ingolstadt in 2003. At AUDI he became responsible for the design of various mass-produced vehicles and concept cars.
Since 2006, Jozef Kaban has been working as Head of the AUDI AG Exterior Design Centre.
(Source: Skoda via Virtual Car)
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