JLR Has Reportedly Sacked Design Boss Gerry McGovern

Land Rover and particularly Jaguar have gained some attention in recent years for their daring design direction, but the future of that direction is now up in the air as the man responsible for guiding it, chief creative officer Gerry McGovern, has reportedly been sacked.

Details on the supposed firing, which first appeared in the Indian edition of Autocar, are currently scant.

McGovern had a 21-year tenure at JLR, joining following stints at MG Rover in the UK and Ford in the US. His first major project was the 2008 Land Rover LRX concept, which went into production nearly unchanged as the original Range Rover Evoque.

Since then, he’s had a hand in nearly every project from the joint brands, culminating in reinventing the Land Rover Defender for the modern era and spearheading Jaguar’s complete rebrand last year (you may have heard some things about it in the press).

The reports come just as that divisive Jaguar Type 00 concept appeared in London alongside a 1935 SS Jaguar, the first car to bear the name, as part of 90th anniversary celebrations for the marque. We should see the first production car bearing the design language it introduced next year at some point, but where JLR goes styling-wise after that remains to be seen.