BMW design boss Habib is quitting automaker

FRANKFURT -- BMW's design boss, Karim Habib, is leaving the automaker, a company source told Automotive News Europe.

Habib, 46, took charge of the brand's styling in 2012, reporting to group design chief Adrian van Hooydonk. He joined BMW in 1998 but left for a short stint at Mercedes-Benz from 2008 to 2010.

BMW declined to confirm Habib's departure, which was first reported in the German car magazine auto motor sport.

It's unclear whether Habib is going to another automaker.

Habib's departure follows closely on the heels of two other key designers, exacerbating a period of upheaval in BMW's design department. Habib joins Anders Warming and Benoit Jacob, the former respective design bosses for Mini and BMW i, who departed last year for Chinese-backed companies. That leaves just Giles Taylor of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars as the sole remaining brand head of design reporting to van Hooydonk.

The positions of both Warming and Jacob remain vacant.

Habib, a Lebanese-Canadian, studied engineering in Canada’s McGill University before attending the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California before joining BMW as an interior designer.

Habib was among the 2013 winners of the Automotive News Europe Eurostars.