Karim Habib

Last updated
Karim Habib
Born (1970-03-17) March 17, 1970 (age 54)
Beirut, Lebanon
CitizenshipLebanese
Alma mater McGill University
OccupationAutomotive Designer
Years active1998–present
Known forAutomotive Design

Karim Antoine Habib (born 1970 [1] ) is a Lebanese automotive designer. He is currently the executive vice president and head of Kia global design [2] for the Korean vehicle manufacturer Kia. He previously worked for BMW and Infiniti. [3] [4] [5] He is fluent in Arabic, English, French, German, and Italian.

Contents

Career

Born in Lebanon, Habib had to leave the country due to the ensueing civil war and moved to Canada in his teenage years, [6] and was educated at McGill University, as well as Transportation Design at the Art Center College of Design. [3]

In 1998, he was hired by BMW. He got his first break at BMW designing the interior of the E60 5 Series. [7] Later he designed the exterior of the BMW 7 Series F01. [3] [4] [5] He left to work for Mercedes-Benz in 2009 for a few years and came back to BMW in 2011 as exterior designer until January 2017. [3] [4] [5]

He started employment with Infiniti in July 2017 [8] and left the company in August 2019, being replaced by Taisuke Nakamura. [9] [10]

In September 2019, Habib joined Kia as Senior Vice President and Head of Kia Design Center. [11]

Notable works

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References

  1. ↑ "Karim Habib of BMW" . Retrieved 2015-05-17.
  2. ↑ "Hyundai Motor Group Announces 2022 Second-half Executive Appointments". HYUNDAI MOTORS. Retrieved 2022-12-22.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Lightstone, Miranda. "Interview: Karim-Antoine Habib". Archived from the original on 2017-10-30. Retrieved 2015-05-17.
  4. 1 2 3 "Who's Where: Karim Habib appointed Head of BMW Design - Car Design News". www.cardesignnews.com. Archived from the original on 2017-01-18. Retrieved 2015-05-17.
  5. 1 2 3 "BMW designer, Karim Habib (*1970) | Facebook". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 2015-05-17.
  6. ↑ MyGrandStory.org (2021-10-18). "Karim Habib". MyGrandStory (in German). Retrieved 2022-12-22.
  7. ↑ "BMW Automobiles Design Boss Karim Habib Resigns. Again". Form Trends. 17 January 2017. Retrieved 29 June 2018.
  8. ↑ "Karim Habib devient responsable du design chez Infiniti - le blog auto". le blog auto (in French). 2017-03-14. Retrieved 2017-04-29.
  9. ↑ "Taisuke Nakamura named head of INFINITI Design". Nissan Online Newsroom. 26 August 2019. Retrieved 2019-08-27.
  10. ↑ "Montreal's Karim Habib is Leaving Infiniti After Two Years". The Car Guide. Retrieved 2021-02-22.
  11. ↑ "Former BMW Design Boss Karim Habib Will Now Head Kia Design".
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