McLaren continues to reshape design team
Exclusive: David Woodhouse joins McLaren as chief creative officer
VP of Nissan Design America and former Lincoln design director reunites with Kemal Curić as McLaren continues to reshape its design leadership. Meanwhile, Alistair Whelan has quietly departed
Former VP of Nissan Design America David Woodhouse is joining McLaren as chief creative officer, reuniting with his former Lincoln colleague Kemal Curić as the British supercar maker continues to assemble a new design leadership team.
The appointment brings together two designers who played central roles in the transformation of Lincoln during the 2010s. Curić joined McLaren Automotive as chief design officer earlier this year, taking responsibility for exterior, interior, CMF and digital design from the company’s Bicester studio.
Woodhouse will oversee vehicle and product design direction, brand identity, communications, retail environments, partnerships and licensed products.
Meanwhile, Alistair Whelan, appointed chief creative officer following the company's acquisition by CYVN Holdings in 2025, has left the business. As recently as April 2026, when Curić's appointment was confirmed, McLaren said that Whelan remained with the business as chief creative officer, with Curić taking the newly defined chief design officer role.
Woodhouse and Curić previously worked closely together at Ford, where Woodhouse served as Lincoln design director alongside his wider role as director of global strategic design.
Curić joined the Lincoln team in 2014 as exterior design manager for the Continental before leading exterior design on the Aviator and Corsair. When Woodhouse left Ford in 2019, Curić succeeded him as Lincoln design director.
The relationship was clearly a close one. Speaking to Car Design News following his appointment in 2019, Curić described the pair as having worked “hip to hip” on Lincoln’s transformation.
Their work helped establish Lincoln’s “Quiet Flight” philosophy, which moved the brand towards cleaner surfacing, calmer interiors and a distinctive interpretation of American luxury. Woodhouse described the exterior approach at the time as combining anti-wedge gestures, S-curves and strong horizontal emphasis to make vehicles appear longer, wider and leaner.
Products developed during that period included the Continental, Aviator and Navigator, while Curić was also instrumental in translating the design language across Lincoln’s expanding SUV range.
Woodhouse left Ford after almost two decades with the company to become vice president of Nissan Design America in 2019. Based in San Diego and reporting to then global design chief Alfonso Albaisa, he was given responsibility for Nissan and Infiniti design activities in North America.
His move to McLaren now reconnects him with Curić at a particularly significant moment for the company.
Curić arrived at McLaren earlier this year after most recently holding senior positions across Ford’s global design organisation and Ford Performance. Speaking to CDN at the time, he described McLaren as one of the world’s most respected and aspirational brands and said he was looking forward to shaping its next generation of “purpose-driven” cars.
The appointments come amid a wider restructuring of McLaren Automotive following its acquisition by Abu Dhabi-based CYVN Holdings and merger with EV start-up Forseven in 2025.
That process had already brought significant changes to McLaren’s creative organisation. Former Forseven design boss Alister Whelan was named McLaren chief creative officer in 2025, replacing Tobias Sühlmann at the head of design as Forseven CEO Nick Collins also moved across to lead the enlarged McLaren business.
Woodhouse’s arrival adds another highly experienced design leader to the team – and, perhaps more significantly, restores a partnership that has already demonstrated its ability to reshape a luxury brand.
The context at McLaren is very different. Curić has moved from the scale and breadth of Ford to an environment where aerodynamics, packaging and extreme performance exert unusually strong influence over proportion and form.
But the challenge facing the reunited pair has parallels with their time at Lincoln: establishing a coherent design vision while taking an established marque into a new era.
With McLaren expected to expand its portfolio following the Forseven merger, Woodhouse and Curić will now have the opportunity to define what that next era looks like.
