Hot on the heels of the U.S. Treasury divesting all of its remaining shares in General Motors just yesterday, the automaker has announced that its current Chairman and CEO Dan Akerson has elected to retire from both positions. The move wasn’t entirely planned to take place this soon, as Akerson, 65, cut short his tenure as CEO by “several months” due to his wife being diagnosed with an advanced stage of cancer.
Beginning January 2014, his replacement, as voted by the General Motors Board of Directors, will be current executive vice president, Global Product Development, Purchasing and Supply Chain Mary Barra. Barra, 51, will also join the GM Board of Director, and her appointment will go down in history as the first female CEO of any automaker, ever. Succeeding Barra’s position will be none other than Mark Ress, who currently is the President of GM North America. In turn, Alan Batey, current head of Global Chevrolet, will replace Reuss. Batey’s replacement was not mentioned at the time of publication.
At the same time, 41-year-old executive vice president and Chief Financial Officer Dan Ammann has been named President of General Motors. He will assume responsibility for managing the company’s regional operations around the world, with responsibility for global Chevrolet and Cadillac brands as well as GM Financial. His replacement will be named later is Chuck Stevens. Ammann is still responsible for releasing the company’s fourth quarter and full-year 2013 results, which will take place in February 2014.
What’s more, 66-year-old Theodore (Tim) Solso has been named the Chairman of General Motors. The former chairman and CEO of Cummins, Inc. has been a member of the GM Board since June 2012. He is widely credited with turning around Cummins.
The automaker also announced that Steve Girsky, 51, vice chairman, Corporate Strategy, Business Development and Global Product Planning, will move to a senior advisory role until leaving the company in April 2014.
Comments
Looks like Things are a changin in corporate america and in a Good way. 🙂
My sympathies go out to Mr. Akerson, his wife, Karin, and their loved ones while they endure the treatment plan. Advanced stage cancer doesn’t sound very positive. I hope she can still beat whatever it is, but regardless, I pray they receive comfort, strength and peace through this ordeal.
Read my lips “No More Crappy Cars” :-)…
So Girsky is the odd man out in the musical chairs?
I think everyone else should be fairly happy. I think product is the right place for Mark. I just hope he can fix the mass market small and midsize FWD cars. Cruz and Malibu have a long way to go ( along with the Buick Verano and Regal).
Also, we need a better grill on the Silverado.
PS- the gold and chrome Chevy bowtie looks awful.
I love the Silverado! Also, there is only about 50 different grilles on the Silverado! The LS-LT have one kind, the LTZ has another and the High Country has another! Do you mean the whole front fascia?
It’s “Cruze”.
And it has “a long way to go” compared to what and according to who (or whom)? The same goes for the Malibu.
Both are good vehicles and are “better than average ” at the very least. Given their background (development timetable and the financial conditions under which they were developed), they’re actually really good. Have you driven one?
It is indeed unfortunate that Mrs Akerson’s failing health had to be the catalyst for such a glorious event to obtain. I have never been a fan of her husband but it does not take away from the fact that I am currently feeling deep sympathy for her and her family at this time and I too pray that her recovery is swift and will be as comfortable as possible.
With the formalities out of the way, let me comment further. Good riddance to Lackerson. His time at the helm of GM will be remembered as one full of errors, fumbles, misguidance, and outright wastage of opportunities, time, and money. The Akerson Era is over and I for one am happy about that. I don’t know if there will be any improvement under Mrs Barra, but I await that history to be written. I do hope Mark Reuss stays his ground and course. I rather like the fellow and hope to see him in charge one day. Right now, as it stands, he and Ed Welburn, if given the tools by Barra, could make a serious powerhouse out of GM. There is a lot of work that needs to be done at GM right now though:
1. Get rid of Peugeot (does this really need explanation?!?).
2. Fix the damn full size trucks (read what Motor Trend, Car&Driver, and Automobile have said recently)
3. Fire the entire marketing department and hire fresh minds (seen a great Chevrolet, Cadillac, or Buick ad recently?!?)
4. Fix the overseas arms (Vauxhall/Opel and Holden need a position in the market that they can own outright).
Mrs Barra would be well advised to start with the above.
A new grille alone will not fix that ogre. Truly fresh thinking is needed. Useless, laughable rhetoric is not thinking, either. It’s treating intelligent buyers as fools. As if grab handles and bumper steps are brilliant ideas. Pulease.
You know that enforced bumper steps and grab handles aren’t the only things that are new on the Silverado/Sierra… There is so much more than that! New powerplants, infoitainment systems, a completely new design etc!
I don’t get why you hate the Silverado/Sierra so much! My friend got a new Sierra 1500 Crew Cab/Short Box 4.3L SLE in Bronze Alloy with Black Heated Leather and it quite possibly the best truck I’ve ever ridden/driven in.
The marketing department has been good! Way better than Old GM’s marketing department. . .
Truly Rich, Strong, A Man & His Truck, Glasses, Blows The Door Off Of The Competition, That’s Mine, Mom, Rainy Run, Night Out, The Next Big Thing In Luxury Is Small, Blindsided, Danger Alert, etc.
I want to draw your attention to the last phrase:
The company also announced that Steve Girsky, 51, vice chairman, Corporate Strategy, Business Development and Global Product Planning, will move to a senior advisor role until he leaves the company in April 2014.
At only 51 … Girsky is currently chairman of the “Aufsichtsrat” (advisory board) of Adam Opel AG and had played a central and active role in Opel in the past years. And now he is leaving the company? And moved out of the way till he is leaving? Hm.
Is it only because he was not chosen the new GM CEO? Or are other motives in play here?
The US government may no longer be a shareholder in GM but many of the board of directors were hired under that timeframe. These appointments were the work of this board. Recent board decisions have seen plans for scaling South Korea back with the elimination of Chevrolet in Europe and will shortly need to determine the future of Holden.
I hope this team know what they are doing because a lot of infrastructure can get wasted in the process. Yes there unrealized profits at the moment, but is GM impairing hard won global territory in the process.
GM’s drop on the stock market indicates a lack of enthusiasm with the new appointments. Frankly I was hoping Mark Reuss would be appropriately recognized. He is the one with the most product knowledge an ultimately that determines the future of GM more than anything else.
Congrats to all. I’m gunna miss Mark Ruess as head of GM North America. He was so enthusuiatic and involved in the products.
This will all work out pretty well.
Mary was not my first choice but she will do fine. The real key here is she is an engineer and that will prove to be a benefit to the company but she also knows how to handle a budget.
Mary’s weak point is she is not a real inspiring speaker or stand out in a Iacocca/Lutz kind of way but that is a good bad thing.
The thing I like is Mark was moved up and will be in a good position to help with product and product ideas globally not just NA.
One thing GM will benefit with here with Mary is that they are showing they are no longer the company run by stuffy old men and that this will show they have been working to make real and major changes in their past ways.
Also with a woman here it will pay well with over half of the buyers of GM cars as women buy as many and more cars than men anymore. Even if they do not buy them they also hold influence in what is purchased. Case in point While we bought GM on my part for my wife we got a Terrain because that is what she wanted.
Good luck to all!
As for Dan he was in a tough spot to do things that were not always a sure thing and not things that would always make everyone happy. Mary will also be faced with this too and it will be interesting to see how she deals with it.
As for Dan’s family I will say a prayer for them and hope things go as well as they can in a case like this.
Good luck to her because she is going to find it tough now that GM have decided to kill off Australian manufacturing and pretty much kill the iconic Holden RWD’s. GM won’t sell a single vehicle once Holden is all imported.
Correction- GM won’t sell a single car in Australia. . .
Because I know for a fact that I will buy GM!
Matt they only sold 30K units of the RWD car and the rest of the 108K were imported as were most of the other cars that out sold them. The imported Holden Cruze was number 5 and almost passed up the Commodore.
People down there are like we were in the 80’s and are just moving to smaller and imported cars and names.
I feel for the people getting hit but they as well as many here knew it was coming.
Look next for the RWD Alpha to be built here and exported there as a new RWD car and SS model here.
GM will have some PR work just as Ford but they will get through this too.
From what Girsky said yesterday, it sounds like he never wanted to be full time at GM. He was called in during the bankruptcy as an advisory position and, according to him, told his wife it’d be a short assignment. Then they asked him to take on a different assignment. Then a different assignment, etc. In his own words, Akerson said him being CEO of the company was dependent on Girsky sticking around.
Scott, the Cruze is made here and that is why its selling so well. The first gen Cruze which was imported didn’t sell as well as the Aussie one. Only time Cruze overtook the Commodore or had a chance at doing so was when VF was confirmed and then revealed. GM’s two best selling cars here are the ones made here. They sell top 5. Next closest is Captiva which comes in at 15th or lower. It only sold because it had a Holden badge which means something. Badge will lose meaning when manufacturing closes.
Mary is a fine choice. She is a great public speaker, and has played a huge part in the increased margins.
I wanted Girsky…he has done good work at Opel and has worked for the unions: happy labor means better cars.
I’m disturbed by the Holden moves. GM will fall behind VW if they looser much more volume. Volume matters in terms of scale, the prices paid for parts and equipment. Then again, AU is a Tony market, far smaller than Chevy EU. I’m glad that Mary can avoid the dirty work here.
My best wishes for the Akerson family.
As for Mary Barra… One of the best moves made by GM, in my memory.
I will pray for the Akerson’s and give them my deepest sympathy…
I like Mary Barra,! She speaks well, she knows how to run a company from a money standpoint as well as a product standpoint!
Remember that AU is a smaller market, and that Commodore has often been the second most popular car in the country. With that said, yes, sales have dropped, no company should loose money due to a hostile production environment.
I still find this sad. In my mind, there is a little more to this story in that certainly GM would love to close Holden’s first world, therefore high cost, design and tech center, allowing Warren to handle future RWD with Korea and.Germany doing the rest. No auto company is this large.
I’ve driven Cruze and Malibu. Also driven Mazda, Ford, Kia, Toyota in the same class. Mazda and Ford had their backs against the wall too and can you honestly tell me you prefer a Malibu to a Ford Fusion or Mazda 6?
Honestly speaking, the Cruze is rubbish compared to the competition. Even if GM came out of a tough time when the car was developed, you can’t dismiss the fact that its rubbish. You can sympathize for GM but don’t give the Cruze any sympathy points. Cheap plastics, poor handling, boring design. Holden managed to save it in some ways with their unique grill, SRi sports trims, slightly modified design, the hatch and recently with the very successful engineering changes. The Cruze now ranks as the best ride with the best handling thanks to Holden. This includes beating its platform twins in Chevy Cruze, Volt/Ampera and Opel Astra. The Cruze is still in a Daewoo fit and finish rather than Chevrolet or Holden like most of the global Chevy line up and the Zeta cars. The new Cruze can’t come soon enough. If GM didn’t decide to close Holden engineering (unlike manufacturing, this department was 100% valuable and worth keeping), the new Cruze would easily have met Mark Ruess’ expectations and he wouldn’t have decided to delay it. The VW Golf is the king but let down by VW’s service and reliability issues. The Ford Focus is an overall winner with Mazda 3 challenging both and with value for money on its side. The Cruze just doesn’t compete. Holden and Chevrolet (in America) have enough badge credibility and support to get sales but the Cruze is lagging behind at a rapid rate in all categories. I’m sure us GM fans would take one over a compitor but it just doesn’t win the comparisons.
What a woman can do .. Samson and Delilah Thy know how to make man look at what thy like . Yes woman have the power to make things work . From the start of time its been that way