Ousted from Volvo, Page bounces back to Bentley

Robin Page has bounced back from losing the top design job at Volvo by landing the design director role at Bentley. The Brit turns 52 in July and is scheduled to start at the Crewe-based English luxury car brand this September.

It came as a surprise to many industry watchers when it was announced on the last day of January 2023 that auto veteran Page was being nudged out of his Volvo head of global design role by car design unknown Jeremy Offer, a seasoned industrial designer formerly at electric van start-up Arrival. Page is well-respected in the industry, having won ‘Most Supportive Design Leader’ at the inaugural 2022 Car Design News’ People Awards only a month and half earlier at the start of December 2022 and most important of all, seemed to be a natural heir to the successful Volvo design language started by Thomas Ingenlath and Max Missoni.

Indeed, their approach was championed by Page too after he joined the Swedish brand as VP for interior design in 2013 and guided Volvo’s cabin design and quality upwards on production cars like the XC90 and XC40 before taking on the overall SVP role in 2017 and steering concepts like the 2018 360c and 2021 Recharge.

But instead of Page leading Volvo through its next design decade, a change in senior management saw ex-Dyson man Jim Rowan become CEO in 2022 and a change of direction followed. Page remained in post until Offer could start in May 2023, but was only given the chance to stay on at Volvo after that date in what seemed to be an ill-defined ‘senior advisor’ role. Clearly a demotion, it was pretty clear Page would seek out other options and when the Bentley hot seat became vacant again – Tobias Sühlmann lasted only three months in the role before being jumping ship to chief design officer at McLaren Automotive – Page got the gig.

It will be a homecoming for Page, not only to his native England but also to Bentley, where he spent six years from 1995-2001 as a designer at Rolls-Royce and Bentley Motors during the time of the VW Group’s takeover of the Bentley marque in 1998. Winning the internal design competition to create the interior for new Continental GT, which would transform the previously underperforming brand’s fortunes, he subsequently became head of Bentley interior design from 2001-2012 (which included a short stint from 2011-2012 working on the then fellow VW Group marque Bugatti too).

From September 2023, Page will lead a team of 50 designers across exterior, interior and colour and trim disciplines. The Coventry University Transport Design graduate has come a long way in his near 30-year career and seems excited at his next challenge too. “Having worked for 17 years at Bentley, I have always held a strong connection to the brand and kept a close eye on its evolution,” he said. “To return and have the opportunity to help set the design language for the first Bentley BEVs, redefining the rules while keeping continuity to the past and present, is a challenge I am privileged to lead.”