BMW’s Domagoj Dukec is moving over to Rolls-Royce to take over from Anders Warming as director of design as part of a dramatic overhaul of the BMW Group’s design operations.
Warming has steered Rolls-Royce’s design department for three years, having previously worked under Chris Bangle at BMW and then been appointed chief of design at Mini.
Cars launched under his stewardship include the electric Spectre, the refreshed Cullinan and Phantom, and the £20 million Droptail Roadster.
Warming is moving to become head of the BMW Group’s global Designworks operation, which takes a more overarching view of future mobility across the company’s entire portfolio.
Warming and Dukecs’ new roles are among several significant changes for BMW Group Design, with director Adrian van Hooydonk rearranging the teams “to meet changing demands for future-oriented design.
Ex-Polestar designer Maximillian Missoni, who has overseen the styling of each of the Swedish brand’s production EVs and concepts, has been hired to lead the design of all ‘upper mid-size and luxury class’ BMW models, including those from the recently acquired Alpina brand.
Mini head designer Oliver Heilmer, meanwhile, will take over the design of the smaller and mid-size BMW cars, including from the M performance division. He will be replaced at Mini by Holger Hampf.
Rolls-Royce CEO Chris Brownridge hailed the “substantial and lasting” impact Anders Warming has had on Rolls-Royce, and said “his wealth of experience and creativity have instructed our future aesthetic direction”.
Dukec is well known as the longtime design chief at BMW, under whose stewardship the brand has completely overhauled the look of its cars, most notably embracing substantial new grilles for all its cars – a move which Dukec has previously acknowledged as “polarising” but “brand-shaping”.
Dukec has been at BMW for more than 14 years, and has served in various high-ranking positions – including as design director for the electrified BMW i sub-brand, and then in the same role for the M performance division.
Before arriving in Munich, he was a senior designer for Peugeot and Citroen at the PSA Group, but started his career in the late 1990s as an exterior designer at Volkswagen.
He will assume “overall responsibility for all design topics” at the Goodwood firm, including the expansion of the highly lucrative Bespoke division.
Rolls-Royce has not yet indicated what its next production car will be, following the launch last year of the Spectre, but the company is working on an update package for the Ghost saloon and will be turning its attention to future EV models as it looks to go all-electric from 2030.
