Legendary car designer Giorgetto Giugiaro leaves the design institution that bears his name

Photo courtesy of autoblog.it

Legendary car designer Giorgetto Giugiaro has left the styling and engineering company he built. The move comes about five years after the 76 year-old founder sold a 90.1 percent stake in Italdesign Giugiaro SpA to Volkswagen Group's Audi, retaining only 9.9 percent for his 50 year-old son, Fabrizio,  and himself. That remaining stake was officially sold to Audi on June 28th.

Italdesign Giugiaro issued a statement saying Giorgetto Giugiaro leaves "to dedicate more time to his personal interests", adding that the change "won't influence" the development of the company, which is on a "growth path."

Giorgetto Giugiaro's car design career started at Fiat when he was 17 years old; he went on to start his own company in 1968. What sets Italdesign Giugiaro apart was it provided design, engineering, prototyping and testing services for carmakers, leaving the manufacturing portion solely to the customer.