Frank Stephenson, head of design at Alfa Romeo

Frank Stephenson, who recently lost his job as head of design at Fiat, has been appointed for the same position at Alfa Romeo. He will replace Wolfgang Egger who joined Audi. Gossipmongers will say he was given the job because it was too expensive to fire him, but we prefer to think he had the job thanks to his talent.

Born in Morocco and master of as many languages as an electronic translator, he changed position quite regularly the past few years moving from BMW, where he designed the masterpiece New Mini, to Rolls-Royce, then shortly to Ferrari before landing at Fiat where he practised his retro-design talent on the next Fiat 500 due to be sold in July.

The loss of Wolfgang Egger who designed the magnificent 8c Competizione was a surprise at a time when the Italian manufacturer has big expansion plan: a baby Alfa, the new 149 and the American conquest.