India’s and Tata Motors’ Pratap Bose is among the top five finalists for the 2021 World Car Person of the Year award. The five names were announced today when 93 World Car Awards (WCA) jurors from 28 countries collectively voted for the finalists by secret ballot. KMPG tabulated the vote results.
To be eligible, award candidates must have made a significant contribution to the global automotive industry during the period January 1 to December 31, 2020. That contribution could include a significant impact to their brand or company, for example, or a significant safety, engineering, design or technical advancement.
The top five finalists are, in alphabetical order are:
PRATAP BOSE (Tata Motors)
Pratap Bose is Tata Motors' Vice-President, Global Design. In that role, the Royal College of Art graduate brings an international perspective to India's leading automotive conglomerate as he now leads three design centres around the world: in India, Italy, and the UK. His multinational experience and truly global perspective are raising Tata's design presence, both within and beyond India, and gaining recognition for its daring, forward-looking design strategy.
In April 2018, Bose won the prestigious ‘Top Chief Design Officer’ award at the 2nd World Industrial Design Conference held in Hangzhou, China. The award recognised Bose for his role to use design as an enabler for volume and market share gain for Tata Motors, which is now very evident in the company's speedy rise in the passenger vehicle market.
LUC DONCKERWOLKE (Hyundai Motor Group)
Luc Donckerwolke has returned to Hyundai, where he has created a spectacularly successful design strategy for the Hyundai, Kia and Genesis brands. His leadership style is supportive and empowering and his enthusiasm for cars and mobility solutions is unbridled. As Chief Creative Officer for the Hyundai Group, Luc Donckerwolke is the driving design force behind the Genesis luxury brand and its sophisticated style, particularly the G80 and GV80.
EUISIN CHUNG (Hyundai Motor Group)
Euisin Chung is the Chairman of Hyundai Motor Group and son of the founder of Hyundai. As such, he has led the rise of Hyundai-Kia into the ranks of the global top five automakers. He has brought together an ‘all-star’ team of designers starting with Peter Schryer and continuing with Luc Donckerwolke, Sang Yup Lee, Simon Loasby, and Karim Habib. Hyundai and Kia under his supervision have became serious competitors in the electrification race, with major strides in hybrid, fuel-cell, and EV technology.
TOMIKO TAKEUCHI (Mazda Motor Corporation)
Breaking barriers and ‘glass-ceilings’ for women in a male-dominated industry, Tomiko Takeuchi is Mazda's first-ever female chief engineer and program manager, of the MX-30. She is also Mazda's first female development and evaluation test driver, just one of the skill sets, along with her background in innovation and design, that enabled her to expertly lead 1,000 staff around the globe involved in the creation and debut of the MX-30 – Mazda's first-ever fully electric vehicle.
AKIO TOYODA (Toyota Motor Corporation)
Akio Toyoda, the charismatic President/CEO of Toyota Motor Corporation, has spent years successfully remaking his company. Toyota was the world's largest automaker by sales volume and still profitable in 2020, despite COVID-19, protecting jobs worldwide. He has maintained Toyota's pace of steady development for the CASE (Connected, Autonomous, Shared, Electric) era and has initiated construction of the Woven City, an exciting real-life prototype city of the future. All while actively participating in motorsports as a driver.
Previous World Car Person of the Year recipients were Carlos Tavares, CEO of PSA Group (2020), the late Sergio Marchionne, CEO, FCA; Chairman, CNH Industrial; and Chairman and CEO, Ferrari (2019) and Håkan Samuelsson, President and CEO, Volvo Car Group (2018).