Bangle was Head of BMW Design Development since succeeding Claus Luthe in Oct. 1992.
BMW would rapidly expand, and soon acquire other brands and the Designworks Studio in subsequent years.
Joji Nagashima was just one of many designers who worked under Bangle's corporate tenure.
His designs include the E36/7 Z3 Roadster, the E39 5 Series, and the E90 3 Series.
Of course, final designs are the result of a team effort. The final design is a combination of the designer's original sketch, the direction set forth by the Head of Design, and inputs by other designers and engineering factors.
It's long been rumored that Bangle designed the E46.
This is partially correct. Bangle was the designer for the E46 sedan, Erik Goplen for the coupe and touring, and Ulf Weidhase for the E46 M3.
Of course, the latter two designers would borrow strongly from the E46 sedan in the designs of the coupe, touring, and M3, which is evident by Bangle's fingerprints on the patents.
It gets confusing but the roles of Bangle and Van Hooydonk often were complementary, having both served as the Head of Designworks studio in succession (Bangle 1996-2001, van Hooydonk 2001-2004) and Head of Design (Bangle 1992-2009, van Hooydonk 2009-2012).
Bangle's career at BMW saw him juggle the positions of Head of Design Development for BMW, Head of Designworks, and overall Head of Design until his sudden departure from BMW in Feb. 2009, after which van Hooydonk assumed the role of Head of Design until van Hooydonk himself, became VP of BMW Group/BMW Group Design Chief and the role of Head of Design for BMW would be filled by Karim Habib, and later Jozef Kabaň (current).
The infamous "Bangle Butt" of the E65/E66 was, in fact, designed by Adrian Van Hooydonk when he was still [technically] working under Bangle.
Chris Bangle, was, of course, on board with it, but the hand that sketched the shape was that of van Hooydonk.
After all this time, I never would've thought I'd be saying this, but the E65/E66 LCI front end looks like a breath of fresh air compared to the G11/G12 LCI.
