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Rolls-Royce and Bentley Motor Cars Appoint Design Director

6 April 1999

Rolls-Royce and Bentley Motor Cars Appoint Design Director

    CREWE, England, April 6 -- Rolls-Royce and Bentley Motor Cars
has announced the appointment of Dirk van Braekel as Director of Styling and
Design.  A native of Belgium, Mr. van Braekel, 41, has been in the auto
industry for 15 years, creating vehicles for such companies as Ford Design,
Audi AG and Skoda Auto.
    Mr. van Braekel spent two years with Ford Design in Cologne before
attending the Royal Collage of Art.  After graduating in 1984, Mr. van Braekel
joined Audi AG, where he spent nine years as a member of the design team
working on such cars as the Audi 80 Avant, Cabrio, A8 and A3.  Mr. van Braekel
then moved to Skoda Auto where he help establish the 'new face of Skoda,' with
the highly acclaimed Octavia and Octavia Combi.  This design revolution helped
transform the marque into one of the outstanding success stories in recent
years.
    Mr. van Braekel now comes to Rolls-Royce and Bentley as head of the
Styling and Design Team at Crewe.  Working alongside Chief Stylist Graham
Hull, and Styling and Design Manager Simon Loasby, he arrives at Crewe in time
to celebrate the opening of the new Styling and Design Centre.  With an
investment of nearly 1 million pounds, the centre was commissioned in January
1999 and is due to open in April of this year.  The centre, which will be
among the best in Europe, will provide facilities for all aspects of the
styling and design process, including clay modeling, interior and exterior
viewing areas, styling studio and modeling centre.
    Tony Gott, acting chief executive, is pleased to announce this
appointment.  "We are moving into a tremendously exciting era, and to secure
the services of Dirk van Braekel at this time is a great asset to the team at
Crewe.  He is highly regarded within the Group and the Industry as a whole,
and has many excellent car designs in his portfolio.  He will have the full
support of Graham Hull and Simon Loasby, who are quite knowledgeable about the
presence and pedigree of Rolls-Royce and Bentley."
    Dirk van Braekel will take up his new role at Crewe in the next few weeks
and will report directly to Tony Gott, acting chief executive and member of
the board for engineering.