[/align] [/align][/align] Andrea Pininfarina died this morning at 51 years in an accident while riding his Vespa motorcycle on the outskirts of Turin. Police said that the chairman and CEO of the well known chassis company was killed after a collision with a Ford Fiesta.

Andrea Pininfarina (1957-2008) graduated from Polytechnic of Turin as a mechanical engineer in 1981; in 1982 he began his career in the United States with Freuehauf Corp. In 1983 he joined "Industrie Pininfarina S.p.A.", first as Coordinator and then as Program Manager of the Cadillac Allante’ project. In 1987 he was appointed Co-General Manager of "Industrie Pininfarina S.p.A." and eventually, in 1988, he got the position of General Manager, followed by the appointment of Managing Director in 1994 and of Managing Director of “Pininfarina Ricerca e Sviluppo S.p.A.” in 2000. Since July 1st 2001, he has held the position of Chief Executive Officer of Pininfarina S.p.A. and, since May 12th 2006, he has been Chairman of the Board of Directors too.