Long-time Jaguar Land Rover Designer leaves with immediate effect
Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) Chief Creative Officer Gerry McGovern – the man responsible for the controversial rebrand of Jaguar – has been sacked, according to multiple reports. Making this one of the most significant restructures at the British marque in a long time.
Sources say that the decision to fire McGovern was made by new JLR CEO, P.B. Balaji, who before was Chief Financial Officer for JLR parent company Tata Motors, and takes over from Adrian Mardell, who is retiring after three years in the role. According to Autocar India, McGovern was “escorted out of the office” at JLR’s Design Studio in Gaydon, Warwickshire. There have been no comments made by JLR, nor Tata about McGovern’s dismissal as of yet.
P.B. Balaji, CEO of Jaguar Land Rover (Jaguar Media)
McGovern’s time at JLR stretches all the way back to the early 2000s, as he first joined Land Rover as Director of Advanced Design in 2004, and then joined the company’s Executive Committee in 2008. When Jaguar Land Rover merged in 2013, he also joined their Executive Committee too. Eventually in 2021, he became Chief Creative Officer – a role that made him a board member and a main figure in JLR’s ‘Reimagine” transformation strategy, which intended to reposition JLR for the switch to Electric Vehicles (EVs).
The advertising campaign of Jaguar’s rebrand (Jaguar Media)
Some of McGovern’s best work at JLR include the 2008 LRX Concept, which eventually became the Range Rover Evoque, one of the companies best selling cars. He also designed the Range Rover Velar and the latest generation Land Rover Defender.
As well as the not-so-well received Jaguar rebrand, he was also the lead designer of the Jaguar Type 00 Concept, a car that is the face of the Jaguar rebrand and is also facing its own significant backlash thanks to its polarising design and not having any resemblance of Jaguar’s of the past.
The controversial Jaguar Type 00 Concept (Jaguar Media)
Automotive Industry Economics Expert, David Bailey, described the departure of McGovern as “The symbolic end of an era”. Bailey explained that McGovern was not just another executive – but the central creative force behind the modern identity that JLR now has today.
Bailey also said that “the bold experiment in transformation is wobbling under commercial and cultural pressure” – which suggests that McGovern’s exit may indicate doubts inside JLR about the direction of Jaguar’s rebrand as well as the strategy of making fully electric, limited run models to compete with the likes of other high-end brands such as Bentley.
The new Jaguar logo (Jaguar Media)
In short: The departure of Gerry McGovern marks a huge turning point for Jaguar Land Rover - whether his exit signals the end of Jaguar’s bold rebrand – remains to be seen.