GM has named Lin-Hua Wu as the automaker’s new Senior Vice President and Chief Communications Officer. Wu will assume her new position effective August 21st, 2023, reporting to GM Chair and CEO Mary Barra. Wu joins GM with broad experience in the corporate, agency, and tech sector.
Lin-Hua Wu
Wu joins GM after serving as Vice President of Global Communications and Public Affairs at Google since 2021, providing support for the Knowledge and Information and Global Business Organizations. Prior to working at Google, Wu was chief communications officer at Dropbox between 2016 and 2021, and before Dropbox, she served as the head of corporate communications at the financial services and mobile payments company Square (now known as Block). Wu was also a partner with the Brunswick Group between 2013 and 2015, and she served as managing director at Kekst and Company between 2004 and 2012.
Wu began her career as an associate at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich and Rosati in California. She is also a member of the Board of Trustees of Glide and a board member of the Stellar Development Foundation. Her educational background includes a bachelor’s degree in international relations from Stanford University and a law degree from Stanford Law School.
“Lin-Hua’s broad experience and background will help drive more effective internal and external communications around our EV transformation and accelerated growth strategy,” said GM CEO Barra. “Her extensive technology and Silicon Valley experience is the perfect fit for communicating our story as a technology-driven company that enables a world with zero crashes, zero emissions and zero congestion.”
General Motors aims to launch 30 new EVs globally by 2025, and is currently developing new autonomous vehicle technology via AV division Cruise. GM’s EV technology products include Ultium batteries and Ultium drive motors.
In related news, GM is currently searching for a new Global Marketing Director following the retirement of Deborah Wahl this past March.
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Comments
There is nothing in her background to justify this role. Nothing
Did you even read the article? She served as VP of Global Communications for Google and High up in Communications departments of several other companies…. Yes she has the qualifications.
I hope they make her CEO next. She’s qualified enough, and it would piss you off.
Yes! She’s got boobs, worked at woke companies and there’s a 10% chance she’s a spy!
2 things, 1 as someone look for candidates, the fact she has jumped jobs that much is a huge red flag. She’ll probably only spend 2-3 years at GM if her employment history shows anything. Of that it’ll take her a year to get up to speed on what she needs to be doing at GM. She’s obviously not being hired for her job performance
2, if you can afford to hire such a person for said position, then these are the roles you need to cut in a recession. Cut these jobs, bring back more engineers and designers.
Time for all (us) boomers to acknowledge that…
1. Today’s younger leaders and workforce (and companies) do not value job longevity like 30 years ago. There aren’t pensions any more, and for most younger leaders, they’re willing to bet that continuously hunting for the rainmaker job is the more logical path to ensure they have a nest egg when their work career is finished.
2. Data and Information is valued a LOT more than manufacturing to investors. GM’s market cap is around $50B while Google’s is $1.5T. My math tells me that Google is values at 30 times what GM is valued. The fact that GM saw the value of hiring their next communications head from a company that is worth 30X more than itself seems like the smart decision, and might also help itself move from the manufacturing space into the data and information business.
3. It’s smart business for companies to allow their senior leadership diversity to match their own stakeholder diversity. GM sells cars and trucks in Asia, South America, and North America, to all genders and ethnicities. Having senior leadership matching their potential market seems like a smart decision.
The bottom line on this hire is that Mary and her team haven’t batted a thousand since 2014, but by most accounts, have delivered solid balance between financial results, product development, and ESG performance.
Market cap is BS. It doesn’t mean you make that much, it means you could in an ideal situation. Teslas market cap is higher than GM’s yet their overall revenue is way lower. Market cap is supposed to give investors an idea where to place money, nothing more. GM hood way more in assets than any tech company.
This is for Google News.
If you are presenting the news and offering readers an opportunity to PAY for the news, have you made it clear to the readers, or to the news providers, that there will be a cost for the reader to pay and a receipt for the provides?
I am a 78 year old man that finds the lack of clarity very disappointing. I don’t watch TV but I do read the news.
However you and Fox News take advantage of your viewers by not explaining this method of creating money from the oblivious readers.