Dirk van Braeckel

Dirk van Braeckel (born February 19th, 1958 in Deinze), is a Belgian car designer, currently head of design at Bentley Motors.

Born in Deinze, after leaving school, van Braeckel studied electrical engineering, before joining Ford as an apprentice car designer in Cologne, West Germany. Ford then agreed to sponsor him undertake a degree in car design at the Royal College of Art, London.

On graduation, he joined Audi in 1984, working on external design. In 1993, Volkswagen Group boss Ferdinand Piech personally choose him to head design for VW's newly purchased Škoda Auto division, where he revised the entire model line-up, creating the Octavia and Fabia models.

After VW purchased Bentley in 1998 from Vickers plc, Piech again made van Braeckel chief designer. His brief was to create a second-car line that could sell in higher volumes than the $240,000 Bentley Arnage limo. Van Braeckel created the Bentley Continental GT, which in 2004 sold 5,983 units, exceeding forecasts by 62%.

In 2007, van Braeckel was awarded the laureate of Antwerp’s Christophe Plantin Prize, which honours Belgian citizens whose cultural, artistic or scientific activities contribute to the country’s prestige abroad. In 2008, van Braeckel was awarded the European Automotive Design Award by Designers (Europe).