Gerry McGovern

Gerry McGovern
Gerry McGovern with the fourth generation Range Rover
Born	1956 Coventry, United Kingdom
Nationality	British
Occupation	Car designer
Employer	Land Rover

Gerard Gabriel "Gerry" McGovern is a British Design Director for Land Rover, leading the company's Design Studio at Gaydon, Warwickshire, creating concepts and new models. A strong advocate of design's relevance to brand equity, he is a member of the Land Rover board of Management.

McGovern was born in Coventry in 1956 where he attended primary and Binley Park secondary schools. While still at the latter, he was introduced to Chrysler design boss Roy Axe, who was to remain a major influence. Chrysler sponsored McGovern at the Lanchester Polytechnic (now Coventry University) where he completed a degree in industrial design before attending the Royal College of Art in London, specialising in automotive design.

While sponsored by Chrysler UK, McGovern started work at the Styling Studio at Whitley, Coventry. In 1978 McGovern began working for Chrysler in Highland Park, near Detroit, before returning to the UK as a Senior Designer for Chrysler/Peugeot; here he worked alongside Peter Horbury (later Head of Design for Volvo in Sweden) and Moray Callum (formerly Head of Design for Mazda, then Director of Ford’s Car design division). In 1982 McGovern rejoined Roy Axe (now Design Director) at Austin Rover Group. Through this period he worked on the MG EX-E concept car, was the lead designer of the critically acclaimed MG F sports car and the Land Rover Freelander (the best selling compact SUV in Europe for 7 years), and led the team that created the third generation Range Rover. In 1999 Ford Motor Company hired McGovern to head up and rejuvenate Lincoln-Mercury design. He set up a new design studio in California and became only the second design professional to be appointed to the Lincoln Mercury Board. Among his hires was Marek Reichman, who went on to become Aston Martin Design Director.