J Mays

J Carrol Mays (born 15 October 1954) is a retired American industrial designer who served as Group Vice President of Global Design and Chief Creative Officer at the Ford Motor Company, and was Chief Design Officer at Whirlpool.

Early life and education Mays was born in Pauls Valley, Oklahoma and raised in nearby Maysville. His first name is simply "J", after his grandfather, S J Mays. He started working at his family's auto parts store at an early age. While attending Maysville High School, Mays enrolled in an occupational drafting program at Mid-America Technology Center in Wayne, Oklahoma, with aspirations of architecture. After high school, he studied commercial art at the University of Oklahoma before briefly switching to journalism. he returned to Audi the following year as senior designer, later to become head of Ford's Strategic Design in 2005.

Mays moved back to the United States in 1989, to become chief designer at the Volkswagen of America Design Center in Simi Valley, California.

At the 2011 Los Angeles auto show, Mays talked about the advancement of technology integrated into Ford's production line, and how that has driven vehicle design, especially interior design. Mays retired from Ford at the end of 2013 and was replaced by Moray Callum, an accomplished designer in his own right (he worked with Tesla chief designer Franz von Holzhausen when both were at Mazda) and the younger brother of famed Jaguar creative lead Ian Callum.

Pixar

John Lasseter approached J Mays to work with Pixar as a design consultant during his times at Ford and RCA. Having originally helped during the production of Cars, he had gone on to continue involvement with several other movies, including designing the robot for Big Hero 6 and the vehicles in Zootopia.

Vehicle Design and Intelligent Mobility course at Royal College of Art

Beginning from September 2015, J Mays started contributing to the Royal College of Art's prestigious Vehicle Design programme as a visiting professor. The course was later renamed to Intelligent Mobility from 2018.

Whirlpool In September 2018, Whirlpool announced Mays as its new VP and chief design officer. Mays retired at the end of 2021.