Lea Thomas SmithDirector of Design, Center for Craftsmanship, USA

Lea Thomas Smith is the Director of Design at the Center for Craftsmanship. In this position as Head of Design he is responsible for all design & brand development activities of Lear’s newest business initiative, Crafted by LEAR.

Since joining Lear in October 2015, Smith has been involved in building a unique design team of particularly talented transportation designer, color & trim designer and industrial designers around him, to leverage Lear’s capabilities based on its vertical integration for manufacturing vehicle seats and it’s new customer service proposal through, Crafted by LEAR.

Prior to joining Lear, Smith work experience has spanned from designing luxury yacht interiors in Italy to a return to Germany where he held various high profile design and international brand management roles in the fields of luxury van conversion and to leading design, branding and marketing for several global players, lastly for Mercedes Benz technology MBtech Group, at the time, a Daimler subsidiary. 

Career highlights include “VARDE” Ambassador for Scandinavian Design for representing Denmark and two nominations and the Silver Award from the German Design Council awarded by the German government.

His educational background consists of two degrees, an engineering degree in interior architecture from the University of Trier and a degree in design from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts. In addition to his native German, Lea speaks English, Danish and Italian fluently, with advanced skill in Norwegian and Swedish.