G R E G M G R E E S O N
Greg Greeson exhibited talent for artistic endeavors at an early age. He wrote and illustrated two books at age 6, garnering media attention in Houston, Texas where he was born in 1954. The son of an architect and an amateur painter and writer, at age 9 he won a student art competition and had already decided to pursue art as a career. He received a thorough grounding in architectural drafting and layouts working summers at his father’s firm, Planning and Design Associates.
Recommended as a high school junior by General Motors to study at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, Greeson entered the college in 1975. In addition to receiving an Industrial Design Society of America student award for industrial design promise, Ford Motor Company awarded him a full tuition scholarship. In 1976, he was chosen for a prestigious summer internship program at Chrysler Design in Highland Park, Michigan. Graduating Art Center in 1977 with Distinction, Greeson received job offers from Chrysler; General Motors and Opel; Ford USA and Germany; Mercedes-Benz; Audi; and Porsche Design.
Choosing to utilize his German language skills and pursue his passion for German cars and European design, he accepted the position as Interior Designer at GM’s Opel Design subsidiary near Frankfurt. Rapidly progressing professionally within GM Design, he was subsequently promoted to Assistant Chief Designer in 1979. Greeson’s portfolio of designs created for Opel includes concept cars, racecar graphics, aftermarket accessories, production sports coupes, and multi-purpose vehicles.
Working within the confines of General Motors revealed and nurtured his entrepreneurial streak, and Greeson left Opel, returning to the U.S. with his wife to found Eurway European Interiors in 1981 in Dallas, Texas. He developed the company as a U.S. pioneer marketing ready-to-assemble furniture in the European idiom, and with sales of $1 million in its first year, the firm was instantly successful.
In 1984, Art Center College of Design called upon Greeson, as an automotive designer—
with start-up experience—to join the founding team of its new campus in Vevey, Switzerland. For eighteen months, Greeson oversaw the architectural renovation of a 100-year-old Swiss chateau into Art Center/ Europe’s campus, as well as being responsible for all student recruitment and a good portion of the college’s fund-raising efforts, business development and organizational standards.
Volkswagen Advanced Design in Düsseldorf, Germany hired Greeson as Senior Designer in 1989, making him Project Leader for the highly successful joint-venture Sharan/Galaxie minivan produced by Ford and VW in 1993.
His business skills next led him to be installed as Director/German Division for one of the world’s largest automotive design and engineering consultant companies—International Automotive Design—which he began, as the first employee, in an empty Frankfurt-area warehouse facility with support from IAD’s English headquarters. From 1990-1994, Greeson built the business from 0 to $10 million in revenue, and IAD Germany successfully completed numerous styling, engineering, modelmaking, and prototype-build projects for clients such as Mercedes-Benz, Opel, Honda, Mitsubishi, and Ford.
At the other shareholders’ request, he returned with his wife and three children to
Austin, Texas in 1995 as CEO of Eurway Innovative Furniture. He oversaw a 500% revenue growth at the company he’d founded in 1980, from $4 million in 1994 to over $24 million in sales (2003), while expanding the retailer to three 30,000 sq ft superstores and a highly profitable website operation. His design skills are evident in the company’s architecturally striking storefronts, innovative display fixtures, advertising, marketing and corporate image graphics, as well as in the exclusive products produced to his designs by international manufacturers. In early 2004, Greeson and his wife elected to sell their stake in the company to their business partners in order to pursue industrial design as well as furniture import business opportunities.
GRID Design, Greeson’s independent industrial design business he’s run as a sideline since 1995, undertakes projects that have included scale and full-size automotive design proposals for clients such as Ford Motor Company, for whom he produced a prototype 2005 Mustang design, as well as design and illustration articles for the automotive press. In addition, his latest venture is Collectic Home, a start up engaged in furniture sales at retail and on the Internet.
A regular guest lecturer on entrepreneurship for the St Edward’s University MBA program and a judge for the University of Texas’ Moot Corp MBA business plan competition, Greg and his wife Joni are also active volunteers at their church, their homeowners’ association boards and charitable organizations, as well as in their children’s schools and sports activities.