Alejandro Mesonero-Romanos

Alejandro Mesonero-Romanos Aguilar (born in Madrid, 1968) is a Spanish car designer. He is currently appointed Design director at the Spanish carmaker SEAT and Cupra division, subsidiaries of the VW Group. He will rejoin Renault again in October 2020.

Background

Alejandro Mesonero-Romanos, born in Madrid in 1968, is the son of the engineer José Luis Mesonero-Romanos Sánchez-Pol and Sonsoles Aguilar Barbadillo.[1] He is the youngest of seven siblings and great-great-grandson of the prose writer and one of the major figures of literary costumbrismo in Spain Ramón de Mesonero Romanos (1803–1882).[2][3] From an early age he became interested in the world of the automobile.[2]

After finishing high school, he moved to Barcelona to study at the ELISAVA School of Design and Engineering, after which he worked for a year in the now-defunct Associated Designers design studio, also in Barcelona.[2] His first work experience in the automotive field was at Carrocerías Ayats in Arbúcies, Girona, specialized in luxury coaches.[2][4] Having been offered a scholarship from the English government, he moved to London to study for a master's degree in Automotive Design at the Royal College of Art.[5][6]

Career

In 1995 he joined SEAT's Design department in Martorell, where his brother Carlos had been working since 1985[7] in a time when the company's range was in the process of modernization. His involvement in the conception of the SEAT Bolero prototype[4], which eventually would not evolve into a series production car, made the Volkswagen Group become interested in him, so in 1996 he joined the Design Center Europe that the consortium had in Sitges.[2] During his stay at the center, he was responsible for the exterior design of several SEAT, Volkswagen and Audi models.[8]

In 2001 he signed with Renault and moved to Paris, where he led several design projects of the French company, such as the Laguna Coupé,[6] and since 2007 he served as its Advanced Design director.[8]

Between 2009 and 2011 he resided in South Korea, where he was the Design director of Renault Samsung Motors.[5] During this period, he headed the development of the SM7 Mk2 luxury saloon.[9]

In the summer of 2011, he accepted an offer from Walter de Silva to return and replace the Belgian Luc Donckerwolke as SEAT's Design director, since in August of that same year the latter would take over as head of Advanced Design of the entire VW Group consortium.[5] His first work at the Martorell company was the SEAT IBL, a prototype presented at the Frankfurt Motor Show in 2011, a project in which he completed a design started by Donckerwolke.[10] The IBL was intended to set the design direction onto which the new saloon of the brand replacing the SEAT Exeo was meant to be created.[11]

During his stay at SEAT, the SEAT Ateca, the first SUV of the Spanish brand, was designed.

In July 2020, he signed again with Renault reporting to Laurens van den Acker, EVP, Corporate Design and member of Groupe Renault’s Executive Committee.[12]

Designs
SEAT IBL
Cupra Tavascan

Awards
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References
  1. "Ecos diversos de sociedad". ABC (España). 18 November 1952. Retrieved 20 April 2020.
  2. Dolors Álvarez (6 November 2011). "Arquitecto de coches". La Vanguardia. Retrieved 20 April 2020.
  3. Karam El Shenawy (22 January 2015). "Quién es Alejandro Mesonero Romanos". autofacil.es. Retrieved 20 April 2020.
  4. Sergio Piccione (28 January 2018). "Seat desvela su secreto: Alejandro Mesonero-Romanos, el diseñador de los éxitos de la marca". Expansión. Retrieved 20 April 2020.
  5. "Mesonero-Romanos, nuevo responsable de diseño de Seat". El Mundo. Spain. 22 July 2011. Retrieved 20 April 2020.
  6. Paul McVeigh (22 July 2011). "VW recruits Renault exec to head design at Seat". europe.autonews.com. Retrieved 20 April 2020.
  7. "Carlos Mesonero-Romanos ptofile". linkedin.com. LinkedIn. Retrieved 21 April 2020.
  8. Hanno S. Ritter (22 July 2011). "Neuer Chefdesigner bei Seat". autokiste.de. Retrieved 21 April 2020.
  9. p.a.fina (7 August 2011). "Samsung SM7". autoblog.it. Retrieved 21 April 2020.
  10. Francois Piette (20 September 2011). "INTERVIEW ALEJANDRO MESONERO ROMANOS, DIRECTEUR DU STYLE CHEZ SEAT". vroom.be. Retrieved 21 April 2020.
  11. Fernando Ramos Del Val (13 September 2011). "Seat IBL: el Exeo del futuro". caranddriver.com/es. Retrieved 21 April 2020.
  12. "ALEJANDRO MESONERO-ROMANOS JOINS GROUPE RENAULT - Newsroom Groupe Renault". en.media.groupe.renault.com. Retrieved 3 August 2020.
  13. "SEAT 20V20 wins Design award as best concept car". seat.com. 27 August 2015. Retrieved 29 April 2020.
  14. "The new SEAT Ibiza receives the Red Dot Award: Product Design 2017". seat.com. 4 April 2017. Retrieved 29 April 2020.
  15. "2018 Eurostars awards in Design". Automotive News Europe. Retrieved 21 April 2020.
  16. "Arona wins Red Dot Award in Design". seat.com. 9 April 2018. Retrieved 21 April 2020.
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