Luigi Segre

Luigi "Gigi" Segre (8 November 1919 to 28 February 1963) was an Italian automotive designer noted for his business and engineering acumen as manager and owner of Carrozzeria Ghia from 1953 to 1963. He joined Ghia in 1948 as commercial director under Mario Boano and became a minority owner, built a working alliance with Chrysler and its stylist Virgil Exner, and became full owner in 1954 when Boano left. He is widely associated with the genesis of the Volkswagen Karmann Ghia. After modernising Ghia he founded Officine Stampaggi Industriali (OSI) in partnership with Arrigo Olivetti, inaugurated in 1960 beside the main Ghia factory. During the Second World War he acted as a liaison between the OSS and partisan groups in Piedmont. He died suddenly at 43 in a Turin clinic, and his widow sold most of Ghia in 1965.