World Car Awards - 2025 Design Panel

A design panel consisting of five highly respected world design experts first review each candidate for the World Car Design of the Year award. They then establish a short-list of recommendations for the jurors.

The design experts are:

Anja Bracht (Germany - Pforzheim University)
Gert Hildebrand (Germany - Owner Hildebrand-Design)
Tom Matano (USA - Academy of Art University, Former Head of Design – Mazda)
Victor Nacif (USA - Chief Creative Officer, Brojure.com and Design instructor, New School of Architecture and Design)
Shiro Nakamura (Japan - CEO, Shiro Nakamura Design Associates Inc.)

	Anja Bracht Pforzheim University
	Born in Germany. After studying fashion design at Pforzheim University, Anja Bracht began working briefly in the fashion industry, including HUGO BOSS. She switched to the automotive industry and started her design career at BMW M GmbH in Munich, then switched to BMW Technik after a few years; she then became part of the Formula 1 design team. After a stopover at Renault Design Guyancourt, she was working on the development of the European market at Hyundai Europe. Anja Bracht has been teaching Color + Material at Pforzheim University of Applied Sciences for 20 years in the Bachelor Transportation Design and Master Transportation Design courses and currently supervises the interdisciplinary Color + Material courses. She was responsible for many new vehicles and facelifts in the Color+Material division. These include the Hyundai Getz, Hyundai Color Material Collection of the first generation, BMW M Roadster, BMW M3, BMW M5, BMW Individual Collection and Art Cars. Her favorite colors: Estoril blue, Imola red.
	Gert Hildebrand Owner, Hildebrand Design
	After studying Mechanical Engineering at TH Karlsruhe and design at the Braunschweig University of Art and the Royal College of Art, London, Mr Hildebrand began his design career at Opel. Subsequently he has held senior design positions at Volkswagen, Seat, 3M, Mitsubishi, JCI, Mini, Quoros and Bordrin Design, Shanghai. Among the many vehicles for which he was responsible are the Opel Junior and Kadett E, Volkswagen Golf 3, Seat Toledo 2 and Leon 1, multiple Mini and Qoros models, and the 1994 Le Mans winning Porsche 962.
	Tom Matano Executive Director, School of Industrial Design, at Academy of Art University, San Francisco
	Matano has thirty years of experience in the automotive design industry. He held design positions at GM Design in US, GM Holden’s in Australia, and BMW in Germany. In 1983, he joined Mazda’s North American design team. From 1999 to 2002, Matano worked at Mazda Headquarters in Japan, as an Executive Designer in charge of the Chief Designers group. His accomplishments at Mazda include the MPV, MX 5 Miata, RX 7, and many other projects by the design teams he managed. Mr. Matano is committed to develop young talents, by using his diverse knowledge and experience, at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco, since 2002. Now the program is ranked among the top Industrial Design Program in the country.
	Victor Nacif Chief Creative Officer, Brojure.com Design instructor, New School of Architecture and Design
	Born in Mexico, Victor moved to the U.S.A at the age of 9. His artistic abilities and passion for Automobiles allowed him to attend College for Creative Studies in Detroit, Michigan (CCS). Victor’s career spans 38 years in the Automotive Industry through 3 great Automobile companies- Ford Motor Co. Design, PSA Peugeot Citroën Design and Nissan Design. Leading and Managing on multiple Automotive projects from Advanced Concept to Production, Exterior, Interior and Color and Trim. During his career he has lived and worked in the USA, England, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain and France. He is fluent in Spanish, English and French. Victor is now working on a variety of Projects that entail Interior Design, Product Design and Human Centric Design for the Office space. He is Chief Creative Officer at Brojure.com, a visually stunning software for the Travel Industry, and is a Design instructor at NewSchool of Architecture and Design in San Diego, California.
	Shiro Nakamura CEO Shiro Nakamura Design Associates Inc.
	Born in Osaka Japan 1950. Graduated from Musashino Art University in 1974 and joined Isuzu Motor Company. He studied at the Art Center College of Design in the US and holds a BS with distinction. He worked at General Motors Design in Michigan, created Isuzu Europe’s Design studio, and in 1998, became global design director of the design center. His most notable creation at Isuzu was the VehiCROSS SUV concept. In 1999, Shiro was requested to join Nissan Motor Company to vitalize design. He served as Senior Vice President and Chief Creative Officer until March 2017. He established the strategy of design and brand for both Nissan and Infiniti contributing to the turnaround of the company. Throughout his career at Nissan he has created distinctive designs such as the Nissan 350Z, Cube and the iconic GT-R. He also led the design team that penned Nissan crossover vehicles including the Murano, Rogue/Qashqai, Juke and Infiniti FX. In addition, Nakamura has been awarded numerous accolades including France’s Grand Prix du Design and America’s Eyes On Design Award among others. He established SHIRO NAKAMURA DESIGN ASSOCIATES in April 2017, and is continuing creative activities as a design consultant.