Effective April 1, Tim Mahoney will assume the role of Chief Marketing Officer Global Chevrolet, and Global GM Marketing Operations Leader. He will report to Alan Batey, GM Vice President, U.S. Sales and Service, and interim GM Global Chief Marketing Officer.
Mahoney is not outright replacing Joel Ewanick, GM’s former CMO. According to reports, GM’s future marketing strategy may not call for such a position to exist.
Mahoney brings his talents to Chevrolet from Volkswagen, where he was Chief Product and Marketing Officer since 2011.
Comments
At least he didn’t work for AT&T!
We need petrol heads working in this industry 😀
What’s his main task, to rearrange the deck chairs as they sink? VW has been doing great recently, hopefully he’s one of the people behind it- not just the guy that interviews well. Hopefully he wasn’t one of the idiots behind the Phaeton, a spectacular marketing disaster.
Please educate me. In the past GM had General Managers to head each car division until the end of 1983. From then the general manager had far less scope. This got watered down to “marketing general managers” near the turn of the century. By spring 2010 Brent Dewar was North American VP Chevrolet Channel and Jim Campbell General Manager. Since then we have had Alan Batey and Don Johnson as US VP Sales and Service. Is Tim Mahoney now the global head of Chevrolet or only in charge of marketing?
Based on his experience as reported in the VW North American website (!) he has never worked a day in his life outside the US. That lack of Global experience is a serious impediment IMHO to anyone who has intentions of understanding the world market. He joined VW in May 2011. VW bio on him is copied below as is the link.
Tim Mahoney is executive vice president and chief product and marketing officer for Volkswagen of America, Inc. He reports directly to Jonathan Browning, president and CEO of Volkswagen Group of America and president of the Volkswagen brand. Mahoney is responsible for the strategic alignment of the brand’s product planning and marketing efforts in the U.S. He assumed this role in May 2011.
Prior to joining Volkswagen, Mahoney was senior vice president and chief marketing officer for Subaru of America where he was responsible for leading and managing the Subaru brand in the U.S. market, marketing communications, corporate communications, product management and customer relations and loyalty. He served in this capacity for five years.
Mahoney joined Subaru of America in 1984 as a marketing research analyst, and was promoted through the organization holding a number of management roles in areas including marketing, advertising, merchandising, market research and strategy, as well as product planning. In 1999, Mahoney joined Porsche Cars North America where he held the positions of general manager of marketing and, later, vice president of marketing before returning to Subaru in 2006.
Mahoney received a bachelor’s degree in international studies and foreign languages from Newberry College. He went on to earn a master’s of business administration in marketing management from Drexel University. He started his career in sales management at Sara Lee.
Link: http://media.vw.com/newsrelease.do;jsessionid=482D9E04149F94D2CD321D90839F061C?&id=918&allImage=1&teaser=timothy-j-mahoney&mid=121
Cars like the Phaeton take about 20 years to change people’s opinion also take into consideration the market place, if they sell 20 phaeton’s & the market leader sells 200 is it such a bad thing? I think not.
Yeah I don’t think so because the car is not the problem, the BRAND is. You don’t take a Rolex watch- then brand it as a Timex, but charge a Rolex price. The VW brand will not ever become a premium brand because it’s a “value” brand- it can’t be two things, a brand has one image/association. Would you pay $6000 for a Timex? Even a real good one? Nope.
Good research Rocky. Sounds like Tom Mahoney’s background is more heavily Porsche (1999-2006) and Subaru (1984-1999, 2006-2011) than Volkswagen (2011-2013). Would be interesting to hear what someone with a marketing background thinks.
By the way, I think Volkswagen sold 39,000 cars in January 2013. GM sold 197,000 cars in that same period. Just sayin’
This guy is obviously known to GM, since GM had a stake in Subaru for a bit. Welcome aboard now help GM and Chevy develop some clear product driven commercials that speak to the Masses… This guy has a strong background helping define product direction what a huge benefit…