BMW Design Chief Quits

Karim Habib, who has headed design efforts for BMW AG’s namesake brand since 2012, has left the carmaker, according to multiple media reports.

It isn’t clear whether the 46-year-old Habib had taken a job with another carmaker. His departure was first reported by German enthusiast magazine Auto Motor und Sport. BMW has declined to comment.

Habib is the third BMW designer to leave the carmaker in the last year. Anders Warming, who had been the chief designer for BMW’s Mini brand, left the company last August to join Borgward, a German brand that was recently taken over by China’s Beiqi Foton Motor Co. Benoit Jacob, the former design head of BMW i, joined Chinese electric startup Future Mobility Corp. last April.

Neither Warming or Jacob has been replaced yet. Habib’s departure leaves Giles Taylor of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars as the sole remaining brand design chief for the carmaker, Automotive News Europe notes. Adrian van Hooydonk continues to oversee all of BMW Group’s design operations.

Habib joined BMW in 1998 as an interior designer. In 2008 he took a job with rival Mercedes-Benz but returned to BMW two years later. A Lebanese-Canadian, Habib studied engineering at Canada’s McGill University and the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, Calif.