GM has announced that Executive Vice President of Software and Services, Mike Abbott, will step down due to health reasons. Abbott joined General Motors last May, and expanded the Software and Services leadership team, as well as contributed substantial advancements to the company’s software design, development, execution, and quality testing. Baris Cetinok will serve as interim until a successor is found.
Abbott joined General Motors on May 22nd, 2023. During his tenure at the automaker, Abbott also worked to leverage artificial intelligence (AI) technology in a variety of different areas to accelerate innovation, improve EV deployment, and streamline business operations, as detailed in an AI-focused website.
Prior to joining General Motors, Abbott served as Vice President of Engineering for Apple’s Cloud Services, where he was responsible for the development of core infrastructure for services like iCloud, iMessage, Private Relay, Mail, and account security. Abbott stepped away from Apple in March of 2023. Additionally, Abbott served as Visiting Scholar at Stanford’s Artificial Intelligence Lab (SAIL) and General Partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB), while also working with various teams at Microsoft, Twitter, and Palm.
“Mike’s contributions have been invaluable, and I look forward to him remaining part of the GM family as an advisor to me when his health permits,” said GM CEO Mary Barra. “I also have the utmost trust in the strong bench of leaders in place. His recovery is the priority, and we wish him well.”
With Abbott’s departure, Baris Cetinok will serve as the interim head of Software and Services while a search is conducted for a replacement. Cetinok currently serves as vice president of Product in Software and Services.
Looking ahead, General Motors aims to generate additional income through various subscription-based services, with plans to generate upwards of $20 billion to $25 billion in revenue annually by 2030.
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Comments
I am sorry that he is ill and I wish him the best. However, with so many computer glitches lately in GM vehicles this is an opportunity to shake things up and get some better quality.
Wonder if Mike’s org was responsible for the Blazer EV stop sale at all.
He came in behind the Blazer EV development and his team setup the pieces GM used to help resolve the issues once they became apparent.
GM: PLEASE be sure the next person has at least some automotive experience, including supervision of code specification, testing and QA.
Perhaps someone from Tesla?
Tesla is worst in the business as far as privacy goes, so maybe not.
Mary needs to follow him. Maybe they can start a bakery.