Johan de Nysschen has returned to VW after four years as president of Cadillac. Following his tenure at the premium U.S. auto brand, de Nysschen will now assume the role of COO for the North American region at Volkswagen, according to a recent press release. He will start his new position October 1st, and will report to Scott Keogh, head of Volkswagen Group of America.
For Johan de Nysschen, the move likely feels like a return home, as his resume includes more than 20 years with the VW Group leading Audi in markets that include South Africa, Japan, and the U.S.
“I’m looking forward to rejoining a Group and leader I know well and admire,” Johan said in a press release. “This is a great opportunity to play an important role at a company of this scale at a fascinating time.”
Johan de Nysschen also led Infiniti for two years before joining Cadillac in 2014. De Nysschen suddenly left Cadillac in April of 2018 after four years in the position, and was replaced by the current Caddy President, Steve Carlisle.
Johan de Nysschen is known for being brash and blunt at times, personality traits that perhaps both aided and hindered him during his time with Cadillac. He took the reins as Cadillac made its controversial move from Michigan to Manhattan, and was tasked with revitalizing the premium brand to help it more ably compete with German rivals.
During his time with Cadillac, Johan de Nysschen helped the brand move forward on future-leaning ideas like Super Cruise Driver Assistance Technology, and he helped to usher in the twin-turbo 4.2L LTA V8 engine, a.k.a. the Blackwing, while also revitalizing the customer experience through an overhaul of Cadillac dealerships.
However, Johan de Nysschen also missed out on the exploding popularity of the SUV and crossover segment. After four years, Cadillac only managed to roll out one new vehicle, the Cadillac XT4, in 2018. What’s more, Cadillac’s revamped advertising message, “Dare Greatly,” never really caught on, and sales failed to show a significant uptick during his time with the company.
All told, it’ll be interesting to see how Johan de Nysschen handles his return to VW, especially in his new role of COO for the North American region. In the meantime, subscribe to GM Authority for more Cadillac news and around-the-clock GM news coverage.
Comments
How GM didn’t allow Johan Full Autonomy to turn Cadillac back to the Glory it deserves is mind numbing. It really is too bad.
Wow! Imagine what 2014-2018 would have been like for JdN if these comments on this page were made then….
Instead, what did most folks including Scott3 have to say? The exact opposite. But none of them are here to apologize.
Old Trombone,
Just don’t link me it that statement !!!
I was a JDN fan from the get go !!
Just stand the two men side by side and talk to them for 10 minutes, Mark and Johan, you can clearly see that Johan is the right man for an up scale luxury brand !!
Mark is the down and dirty performance guy, a seat and a ICE – pushrod engine !!! Cheap and fast !!
That’s why scott3 or now C8.R is a Mark sucker, scott3 and his crew are GM performance people, in the loop, buy and install GM performance. Any time you talk electric or EPA, there is scott3/C8.R on their case !!
Its just like me the Horrible GM customer support trumpet !!
Now look at where Cadillac is headed:
V series Cadillacs where base Cadillacs should be, WHY you ask ? Mark is the V series guy !!!
The Cadillac should be a step up from all the GM badges and JDN knew or knows that ” Audi ”
JDN knew where and how to separate the parts bins as to make a luxury badge !!
All Mark knows is kissing ass and performance !!
And that’s where Steve comes in !!!
Why is he even there ?
To bend over puckered up with a tube of lube !!!
Sorry I got a little out of line !!!
In my opinion.
And one more thing !
JDN knew where Audi was at !
He knew what it would take for just a small amount to be better than them !
Maybe not or ever Mercedes, but Audi and Lexus, and now Kia !!!!!
Why does Cadillac have to be the GM ” throw things at the wall ” badge ?
Can’t they use Buick for that and make Cadillac the leader of all !!!
That’s what Cadillac is,
Its the Cadillac of cars !!!!!!!
Not the Chevy of Cadillac of GM of cars !!!
In my opinion
I guess just two more things !!
Look at the mid engine Cadillac !!!!!
I mean Corvette !!!!!
This is a Mark Reuss, Arrogance, move !!
JDN, knew a mid engine Cadillac with the Blackwing would jump start his, ” Dare Greatly ” !!!
And the rest or the RWD platform step up Cadillacs !!!
But when Mark meddled again in the plan, arrogance, we now have a Chevrolet Corvette !!!!
This new Corvette is not going to sell more Chevys, its not !!
But it might have sold more Cadillacs !!!!
And if GM are truly the ” for profit ” C a p I t a l I s t s, they wan to be, the numbers people should have seen this !!!!
There Is simply no way this new Cadillac, I mean Corvette, is going to sell in enough numbers that would justify keeping it around !!
If you use the same measures as ALL of GM for killing a vehicle !!!
In my opinion
PS, wouldn’t that have been a great Cadillac !!!
For those that remember Drew, I suspect he was either banned, or gave himself a stroke.
The social fragmentation lightning-rod part is worth remembering for here. Anyone’s virtue victories counts for jack toward making compelling vehicles.
I still like a JdN interview quote about value and premium/ lux not being separated enough.
I’ve tossed out some dumb ideas though. Not apologizing.
One wonders whether General Motors gave Johan de Nysschen a fair chance especially given that his replacement hasn’t really done much better; there’s not really a direction as to where Cadillac wants to be.. they’ve got their new crossover vehicles that JDN wanted and sales are just OK as the XT4 isn’t selling like Chevrolet’s Equinox as Cadillac needs to decide whether of wanting to be the leaders or a ‘Me Too follower.’
I wish best of luck. His experience & talent are valued back at VAG.
GM are fools for letting him go.
Totally agree with you. He would’ve turned Cadillac around if he was allowed to.
Such a waste of his talent and time at instant gratification GM.
I’m really conflicted on this guy. I truly think he understood the depths of the problems at Cadillac and had plans to address them all but given the scope of the neglect, it was going to take many years to turn it around and GM really only likes quick fixes that make the shareholders happy right now so they ran out of patience on him. In that regard, I blame GM, not JdN for his failure. Despite making big public pronouncements about a commitment to Cadillac, GM was never going to give him the time and resources needed to turn the brand around.
On the other hand, I think we’ve seen the fruits of his tenure now. They began with the XT4, continued with XT6, CT4, and CT5. All of those products, I would attribute to his time at Cadillac’s helm and all of them are stunningly unimpressive. They don’t even begin to meet the expectations I had, and I think other industry observers had, for the magnitude of change Cadillac needed. The two FWD CUVs are just rehashes of Chevrolet products and the two Alpha cars appear to be little more than reskinnings of the old ATS and CTS. The interiors in all Cadillacs, which were so far behind, remain a generation behind Cadillac’s competition. I don’t know who to blame for that though. Was it JdN or the GM bean counters that gave him too little to work with.
As I said, I am really conflicted. I heard a lot of lofty talk from Johan but I don’t see that he delivered much but I do think he understood the problem and at least tried to fix it.
If he understood the problems, he certainly has no idea how to fix them. Other than SuperCruise, I don’t see anything positive that happened under his tenure. Lots of missteps and wasted effort chasing down the wrong paths.
There is a strong suspicion I have that the products (CT4/5, XT6,..) coming to market are watered down versions of what could have been. Recall that he wanted to raise prices even if it meant lost sales in the short term. Surely he expected the products to be executed well enough to support his intent. He had a long term vision for Cadillac; GM didn’t.
The problem wasn’t that he had no idea how to fix Cadillac, the problem was that he didn’t have the resources. According to an interview with him at Yahoo news a week or so before left, GM didn’t actually give him the 12 billion dollars they said they pledged to spend on Cadillac. He used the peanut money generated from Cadillac’s sales to both build the factory in China and develop the next generation cars.
Once he left, the beancounters stuck their nose in the ongoing vehicle development process … All in the name of “expediting the plan”.
While I agree that JdN is responsible for the XT4/6 and CT4/5 product, I truly believe his legacy will be judged by Blackwing and the future rear wheel drive architecture XT7/8 and Escalade.
We can not underestimate the time and investment committed during his tenure that we may or may not see become reality. He pressed GM on subscription services, mobility and electrification, no doubt.
Wishing JdN only the best and also wishing he was still controlling the P&L statement at Cadillac.
Totally agree with all of the comments.
JdN had a plan and vision to bring Cadillac back to the top. I truly believe, the position he held was one of his most challenging, yet, I feel he loved the challenge of bringing such a majestic brand with a glorious past back to prominence.
A true shame we were not allowed to see his vision play out.
Maybe it couldn’t be accomplished? But, it’s better to try with all your effort, than to sit in the corner and suck your thumb hoping for a miracle.
Mary/GM powers that be, did not want to commit to greatness. A shame.
It’s evident in the current product offering. Just ok.
My god. When Kia and Hyundai, not to mention Genesis, is in the same conversation that questions their mainstream products being as good or better than Cadillac, that’s a real problem.
I’m losing hope. The top controllers need to pack their bags…NOW.
I am in the same boat as most here ! I wish he could have done what he wanted to make Cadillac great !!!
Forced into a failure to move to NYC !
Forced into the beginning of the XT4 !
In my opinion when he was told to go cheap, he said, nope, see ya !!
Or told Mark what he really thought of the penny pinching ” good enough ” attitude and was told, see ya !!
Either way he is no longer their, and we get Chevrollac FWD SUVs and a base 2.0T with the 8 speed GM trouble !!
No surprise to me he is no longer there !!!
Good luck JDN !
He was the one main nope for Cadillac but they are still fighting internally what Cadillac should be.
Every time we move to make them a premium brand they get hit back to being discount luxury brand.
You can see it clearly when even a Mark Ruess gets over ruled.
Cadillac will not fail but they will never reach their full potential as the GM board really don’t understand the brand.
He tried to kill fleet sales and cheap leases and sales obviously declined ticking off, front line sales people, dealership owners and GM top brass…So he tried to sell project pinacle inclusive of salemen compensation, it ticked off dealership owners and salesmen to the point where pinacle requirements were relaxed but sales did not icnrease…The consumer wasn’t received a better product, the easy fix would have to been to make optional equipment standard in the base model such as active safety features…