Design boss behind 'woke' electric Jaguar in abrupt exit from carmaker

Jaguar Land Rover's design chief, responsible for the Range Rover and the polarising Jaguar relaunch, has abruptly departed the business just four months after its new chief executive took charge.

- Jasper Jolly

Gerry McGovern left the role of chief creative officer on Monday after 20 years at the business, in which he oversaw the design of some of the company's most successful cars - as well as the launch of a pink electric Jaguar that provoked the ire of Donald Trump.

Britain's largest carmaker appointed PB Balaji as chief executive in August. Balaji was previously the chief financial officer of Tata Motors, the Indian owner of JLR.

Balaji was due to take over the reins of a business that was performing well, generating nearly three years of consecutive quarterly profits. However, any chance of a smooth transition was dashed by a crippling cyber-attack in August that stopped all production at JLR's factories.