I grew up in Northern Ontario, Canada in a mining town with long winters. My Czech-immigrant family were all petrolheads and my father had nice cars as did my uncle and all of his friends. I remember when I was eight years old, there was a 911, a Daytona and a Dino on our driveway. My father and his friends got together on a Sunday afternoon and went for a fast drive somewhere on the outskirts of town with all the kids in the back.

We used to go to all the car dealerships and analyse everything and also the Montreal Grand Prix every year. 

My first GP was in 1978 when Gilles Villeneuve won. It was a real car enthusiast culture. Me and my brother were also very artistic, always drawing. I was pretty rubbish in school to be honest, but by chance I met someone who wanted to be car designer at an open day at Ontario College of Art. I enrolled in the industrial design course there and then went on to attend the European branch of Art Center in Vevey, Switzerland, with a lot of very good fellow classmates who are now very influential in the industry. 

When you’re building a team, you want that sheer enthusiasm for the job at hand, being a designer and creating the future

I think…