Ivo Groen
Lynk & Co Design recruits Ivo Groen as Head of Creative Design

(Previously) Vice President Design Programs, DS Automobiles Born in 1967 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Ivo emigrated to the USA at the age of 13 and was accepted on his 18th birthday to the prestigious Art Center College of Design in California, where he obtained his degree in Transportation Design with Honors 4 years later.

After an internship at Renault Design, passionate about the original 1955 Citroen DS 19 designed by Flaminio Bertoni, he decided to start his career at Style Citroen in Paris early 1990, joining a small team for a decade of intense work on the renewal of the brand, contributing to a series of show cars starting with Activa 2 and the all-new Citroen range of C2, C3, C5 and C6 models. After this accomplishment, the Peugeot SA Group proposed him the responsibility of Prospective and International Cooperation projects, of which the ‘B0’ Joint-Venture with Toyota was his first major program, resulting in the Toyota Aygo, Peugeot 107, and Citroen C1 presented in 2005, followed by their replacement 108 and New C1 nine years later. During this time, he was in charge of PSA’s Advanced Design studio, proposing design for the Peugeot & Citroen brands, and simultaneously worked on MPV and LUV projects with Fiat & Lancia, whilst overseeing the first PSA SUV range designed in cooperation with Mitsubishi presented in 2006. He was also in charge of Peugeot Design programs for Chinese, LatAm & Russian markets. When ‘DS Automobiles’ became an independent Premium brand of the PSA Group in 2014, Ivo had the honor of becoming the Chief Designer of its first model, the DS 7 ‘Crossback’, followed by the DS 9 Flagship sedan, and many more models to come.

Ivo is married and has two adult children. His passion for design has also been his work for over 30 years. During his leisure-time he enjoys driving and tinkering with his classic automobiles. For Ivo, family, nature, healthy food, and the pleasure of the Arts -especially music are essential.

"It’s an honor to have been given the opportunity to contribute to making the premium sustainable mobility brand Lynk&Co an international benchmark in design. This young design-driven brand has already brought products to the market, proving its values in Mobility Design and the utmost importance of User Experience; values I completely adhere to. This makes me thrilled, to be able to dedicate my experience and absolute energy to the next steps we decide to escalate together, with the sincere intention to build & grow with the creative forces of Lynk&Co who’ve already accomplished so much, in such a short time."