Lebanese-Canadian Karim Habib is the brilliant mind behind the designs of some of the most popular vehicles.
Born in Lebanon, Habib moved to Canada in his early years where he attended the prestigious McGill University in Montreal and later pursued a degree in Transportation Design at the Art Center College of Design.
Today, he is the senior vice-president and head of the Kia Design Center in Korea. But the 51-year-old car designer has enjoyed a lengthy career in exterior and interior car design.
In 1998, Habib was first hired by BMW, where he became the company’s head of design. In between his time at BMW, he also engaged in a brief encounter with Mercedes-Benz’s parent organization, Daimler AG.
Just before moving to Korea to join Kia’s global design headquarters in October 2019, he was the design chief of Nissan’s Infiniti division. He has been credited for completely reinventing Infiniti.
While being fluent in Arabic, English, French, German, and Italian, Habib’s sixth language has to be that of car design.
Some of his notable works include some of the BMW X3, BMW X6, BMW 7 Series (F01 and G11), BMW 6 Series Gran Coupe (F06), Mercedes-Benz F800 concept car, Kia Sorento (MQ4), Kia Optima (DL3), and Kia Carnival (KA4).
His name belongs to the long list of Lebanese nationals who have attained remarkable success after moving away from their home country.
