Chevrolet Corvette Product Marketing Manager Harlan Charles has apparently been forced into an early retirement, according to a LinkedIn post on Sunday. “After 24 years on Corvette and 37 at GM, I was informed my time is up, and I will no longer be your Corvette Product Manager,” Charles said on LinkedIn. “I am now retired.”
“I have had the greatest life I could have ever imagined because of Corvette. We were able to prove that America can compete with the best in the world and win,” Charles said.
Charles went on to thank the “Corvette legends” he worked with, like Tadge Juechter and Kirk Bennion, and wished the current team working on the car best wishes. Charles worked on four generations of the Vette, going back to the C5 era, and listed his proudest memories in his decades of marketing the car.
Charles takes credit for some major product planning decisions that have helped form the Corvette product portfolio in the 21st century. He says he named the E-Ray for the C8 and resurrected the Grand Sport and ZR1 nameplates for the C6. The 2013 C6 427 convertible was also his idea. He takes responsibility for the $59,995 price tag for the 2020 C8 Stingray in the mid-engine generation’s debut year. He also played a role in expanding the Vette’s personalization options, from seat belts to brake calipers, making it more competitive with highly customizable European sports cars.
“I can’t think about the future yet,” Harlan Charles said, concluding his farewell on LinkedIn. “I feel fortunate to have [made so] many friends over the years and customer relationships that have become family because of Corvette. I was your voice, and you helped us create what Corvette has become. I hope our friendships will continue even if I can’t help you anymore.”
Based on Charles’s post, it’s clear that departing from GM wasn’t his idea, but he sounds very grateful for his time with the company. His stewardship of the brand on the marketing side has been instrumental in shaping what America’s sports car is today.
Comments
GM’s loss. BIG TIME! Sorry to see you go Harlan…
Get rid of Barra and GM might have half a chance at survival. Bring GM manufac turing back into the USA.
100% agreement—Mary and the board are a disaster
I remember an article where the head of the diesel department at GM was forced to retire. He told them that their Oldsmobile diesel was garbage and wouldn’t work. Guess GM didn’t want to hear the truth….
He was right. Oldsmobile simply used the existing block with a new head for the injectors and glow plugs. Lots of problems.
I think he was lead on the 6.2 diesel engine development in the early 80’s for full size pickups… Another stupid move on GM’ side with retiring the Corvette lead…. GM should pay much more attention to the endless list of recalls on almost all its vehicules, especially the full size trucks and VUS… Always been a GM buff but now really not so convinced anymore….
Mary and company only want an electric vette. No more gas, seriously it’s time for new leadership. Wake up stock holders. A vote of no confidence.
So they force a good guy out before he wants to retire. Meanwhile they keep on promoting the bean counters to the top. They didn’t learn a damn thing from the Roger Smith era. Mary Barra will be the death of GM. I had the opportunity to meet Harlan at the Woodward Dream Cruise. He was tuned into Corvette people and knew what we wanted. Can see why he had to go.
I also personally knew Harlan. GM forcing Harlan out might come back to bite them. He was the life blood of the Corvette.
I would like to know the entire story. It seems GM cannot stop shooting itself in the foot.
In my opinion it had nothing to do with the Corvette’s evolution into gm’s EV story. There are always two sides to the story and 99% of the time it’s about the money or some kind of sexual misbehavior. Hopefully some time in the future we will hear the real cause of this dismissal.
Was he in the bottom 5% ranking?
If Mary can screw things up, she will. Just like Roger.
Why did they shrink the interior such that no one over five feet tall can fit in the Corvette?
I’m 6′ and fit fine with room to spare. Are you sure it’s not your ass that can’t fit?
love it !!! classical response
@mark, might be a classical response, but more than likely true.
Honestly, the current Corvette looks like a tuner homemade clown car straight out of a video game. The 1970 Corvette was clean and elegant. Same thing for the ‘10 Orange one my buddy owned. Clean, simple and somewhat practical.
The ’70s Corvettes were the worst Corvettes ever made. You can’t even give them away. They are not even worth restoring.
70s vettes were not the fastest, but they reeked of sex and women loved them.
If Trump owned it it would have reeked of ass
Awww…so triggered.
I’ll sh00t your salty tears straight into my veins! Sad little soy boy.
So you’re smelling Trumps ass.
Pipe fitter 48, Reeked of sex ?
You better start picking up a better class of hookers.
The early C3’s, the chrome bumper models with decent horsepower has seen significant price growth in recent years.
CEO. Rogers Smith once said, we are in business to make money, and I don’t care if we make vehicles or widgets.
Sad, but true fact.
Maybe Mary wants to feminize it. Like the Blazer. So it appeals to a wider market. Like Bud Light Dylan .
Did he irritate Trump somewhere along the way? Sounds like Trump’s MO.
It’s not unusual for large companies to let someone go that has been there a long time and has a large salary. They then hire a much younger person and pay them a fraction of the former’s salary.. Too bad they start at the very top
Well there is much more to this than just EV and personalities. The Corvette team is very deep in talent and skilled engineers. But not all are suited to be the leader.
The other thing is for GM to survive they need to be ready to deal with regulations. We elect presidents every 4 years. But it takes 8-10 years to develop a car. If you have failed to notice Chevy is doing ICE and EV of each model. They are prepared for what ever regulation the get tossed at them. They have to be.
You will get more ice years with a C9 but there will still be an ICE option.
The road tonthe future is going to be difficult for all brands but GM is in a good place to keep giving you more ICE as long as it is possible to offer them.
The automakers lacking complete EV will need to buy from companies like GM models and tech to survive.
GM would love to do all that you dream but the reality of regulations be it the EPA or CARB every election will bring change.
Sadly the voting public is responsible for the EV cars by the people they voted for that support EV cars. They say they hate EV but they still vote for the Biden’s and Newsoms that are gone deaf to the public.
Mary has done a tough job in the most difficult times. Things could be much worse. But GM is not endangered to be sold to France like Chrysler or sail Like a rudderless ship like Ford. No she will not make everyone happy but GM will survive while others fail.
I am disappointed in Cadillac going all EV.
Loving my manual 5BW in the meantime with another on order.
GM now has so many people in that are not car oriented and that will be their downfall. As far as electric we have no wear near the infrastructure that is needed at this time, maybe 10 years down the road but pushing it now is a waste. These car companies are pushing people away and they can’t even see it!
Agenda over product. Always a mistake.
Those who want to buy an EV and suffer with its limitations. By all means please do. Just don’t ask the rest of us to subsidize it.
Or worse… MANDATE it.
Externally GM is profitable and paying bonuses and bragging about year-over-year sales gains on EVs. It would appear to me though to be all PR hype to paint a rosy picture for investors.
Internally though, GM is struggling to fire people fast enough to offset their tremendous EV costs. They’ve sunk massive resources into electrics with no return-on-investment yet. They’re out there saying their EVs are about to be profitable but the fuzzy accounting they’re using for that assertion is that their material and production costs are expected to reach parity with the vehicle sales price very soon. Obviously though, a product needs to be able to offset its development costs too and pay its fair share of GM’s overhead; the EVs are apparently nowhere near achieving actual profitability. And the sales increases they crow about are perhaps a bit deceptive too. Even an 80 percent sales increase, which sounds good, in most cases still results in pathetically low volumes by historical GM standards.
And so I’d surmise GM isn’t actually doing that well. There are many things happening that could be construed as panic-driven. Internally the morale is terrible according to employees who post their experiences online. Worse, they say, than during the 2009 bankruptcy and government bailout. The employees are saying GM needs to cut staff fast and are branding them as “low-performing” to avoid scrutiny. Apparently firing people for poor performance comes under different rules than eliminating them as a cost-saving measure.
There are employees like Adam Bernard that’ve been let go via the infamous 5 AM email and now Harlan Charles but they’re not alone. Employees are posting online that they are all on pins-and-needles as the 1:1 firings seemingly continue.
If Harland had done anything wrong, you can bet he would’ve quietly left but his public posts seem to suggest, GM may have shockingly canned him as a cost saving measure. I looked him up too and he’s not at GM’s mandatory retirement age yet and, further, if that were the case, he would’ve been expecting the separation. Barra said last year that enough people took the buyout that forced separation wouldn’t be necessary. It would appear that isn’t true. They’ve been quietly eliminating more staff for several months now.
It’s unfortunate when the good people who passionately love GM and what they do are fired because of the decisions of others. In my opinion Mary Barra is Roger B. Smith, the sequel. There are many parallels. She’s stubbornly driving GM further into oblivion believing all the way that she’s leading it kicking-and-screaming into a bright future. Smith’s GM was big enough and strong enough to withstand the destruction he caused. Barra’s greatly diminished GM may not be.
Rocket3…You are so right in your comments. I am afraid we loyalist better prepare for the worst. A company that I have dealings with got caught lying about its stock values and projections. They are paying a hefty price.
I bought my last G.M. truck in 2014. It is my “last” G.M. auto that i will every buy. Thanks Mary for screwing up the love of my life. You lost a customer that has only owned G.M…
The team that skinned the C8 should be the ones to go. While the performance is great (would be even more exciting with a manual trans option), even after 6 years, the appearance hasn’t grown on many because it has a hideous butt and the lines and surfaces are horribly disjointed.
However, it’s actual sales that determine the success or failure of a body design… And 2023 C8 sales were 2nd highest in the history of Corvette. So you might not like it, but actual buyers willing to spend about $100,000 on average for a C8 disagree with you.
The experts in the comments are all the comedy you need.
If they fired the entire Corvette Concierge team that would be a dramatic improvement – you know they will appoint a female to replace him, qualified or not
Maybe not. DEI (didn’t earn it) is currently on the “outs” in the federal government. GM has always played that “game” hard to get tax breaks – which is why I avoided applying for a job there as an engineer many, many years ago. No regrets.
The understanding of their business and absolute negligence on planning for the future is quite evident with the ridiculous and premature retirement of Harlan. As others have questioned this news, did Harlan fall under the bad 5% silo, did he upset or state any facts that were contrary to the senior managers wishes? No, it’s all about salary and head count, forget the knowledge and experience that Harlan provided, GM will now look to find all that in the latest AI software update.
To ask someone to leave like Harlan without planning an appropriate successor shows how truly poor GM has become as a company. Between the latitude that Mary mess pot Barra, the senior management and Norm de Get it Wrong have operated over the last 18 months shows how GM has refocused their compass to the direction of obscurity. What absolute fools these people are with little common street smarts slowly destroying a once great company.
So sad to see all that unbelievable design work, engineering and marketing that was done by thousands of “true believers” (naming credit to P. DeLorenzo) over the decades all shot to hell. This is really upsetting, so much so I want nothing to do with GM and selling all my Corvette and other GM cars as quick as I can…
The Corvette world would definitely be different without your years of the love that you’ve had for it. Thank you for all that you have done for us especially making the 2020 C8 unbelievably affordable. We drove ours in 2021 across the country and back and people were so amazed with it. Proudly made in the USA! Thank you Harlan and good luck in you’re new endeavors.
I totally agree with you. I love my C8. Thank you Harlan and the whole Corvette team for building a beautiful car.
Can’t thank him enough for the defectivve cracked and bent wheels on C7 Grand Sports. Bet he saved $1/wheel by not specifying forged wheels.
Buster,
I retired from GM.
My favorite saying was, “they’d step over a $20 to pick up a dime.”
I felt that way from the first day I started until the last day I worked.
The durability engineers should have known those cast wheels were of insufficient strength for that particular vehicle. They should have been held responsible, and you should have been compensated 100%.
I’m looking at this. Dave Hill had his group, Tadge had his group and now Roma will have his pick of who is on the team and who is not.
Harlan was a face person for the Corvette and was popular with some. He was one of Tadges guys and with the new team they well differently. He is not the first to be let go. Few people spend their entire time on the Corvette team.
To understand how these things work go to Amazon and buy the book All Corvettes are Red. It is about the C5 development and saving of the Corvette. It shows how things really are on the inside politically and power wise.
It takes some very strong people to guide the Corvette and those leading have to have people they trust and can rely on to do what they want done. If you have someone that is not fully behind you best to let them go.
When working for team Corvette you are fighting the board of directors, GM engineering, GM Design and GM Drive train. Each will fight you at times and it takes a strong leader like Tadge, Hill and Zora.
Dave McClelland was a nice guy and popular like Harland. The people loved him but he never fought the system. This is why the C3 languished and why the C4 ended up like a limp noodle with the targa top when it was to have been a T top. Then it was delayed a year.
On top of all this you try to move a car ahead and half the people complain you changed it but the other half love it. Yet no one complains the 911 looks the same after 60 years.
The bottom line is this Roma has already shown strong leadership and he has a great challenge ahead. The Corvette is still in strong capable hands.
Yes That little screw up on the Corvette Grand Sport and Z06 Cracked Wheels on ALL the C7 Corvettes cost me 5,000.00 out of pocket for wheels replacements with only 129 miles on my brand new Grand Sport , but I am sure that was not his fault, the bean counters on the 10 Floor at GM Headquarters wanted to save a buck at the price of consumer safety
I could be wrong here, but I’m sensing that there were some pointed discussions within GM about the future of Corvette. There have been rumors for years about Corvette being a separate brand and expanding that brand to include a SUV. Also, the GM guy that introduced the ZR1 at Barrett-Jackson this year had the term “ICE” in his title on screen. Makes me think there may be more than one electric Corvette named vehicle in the future. If I was the brand manager for Corvette I’d be pretty adamant about not watering down (or dummying down) the brand in the name of corporate profiteering. Your halo car shouldn’t be an electric EV, but it will probably come out as a badge engineered Cadillac Lyriq clone.
Congrats and thank you for your contributions to Corvette!
BRAINLESS BARRA STRIKES AGAIN
Had the pleasure to meet Harlan at the C8 vert reveal at Kennedy space center. Was quite the gentleman and answered every one’s questions with class. Did not sluff anyone off, you really felt he interacted with you and was interested in what you had to say. Best of luck to you Harlan!
Thank You Harlan for being Involved and Overseeing the making of the best American Hot Rod that ever existed. Someone has BIG SHOERS to fill here !
Those cars are still to this date the “Legion”
Everyone knows what a Corvette is and it doesn’t matter what year really, a Corvette is a Corvette !
I knew him and worked with him, he was quite arrogant, and a poor businessman. The things he’s taking credit for were not him, they brainstormed and developed by the Corvette team. Sounds like they finally had enough of him.
HSR,
Another arrogant chief engineer at GM with poor people skills? This is very typical.
The year I bought my first one Zora was still there. I will never forget seeing a photo of him standing outside the factory checking the build quality of a 1972. I wonder what he would say about the new ones.
During earlier generations of the marque, there wasn’t a “Product Manager “. The person nearest to that position was Joe Pike who, besides overseeing ” Corvette News”, was the default Corvette ambassador.
As most know, the real force behind the marque was Zora. He righted the ship and saved C1 from extinction, banged heads with the equally powerful Fisher Body Chief ,Bill Mitchell, over the 63 Split Window Coupe’s rear window bar and Mitchell’s Mako Shark design (the inspiration for the 1968 C3) when cooling issues hamstrung the launch. He championed the independent rear, fuel injection, solid lifter cams, 4 wheel discs, on and on.
I was fortunate enough to meet him in the twilight of his life.
Frank…. I still have most of my Corvette News from 1972 to 1974. I look at them every once in a while to remind me of what a real sports car was like.
My new 73 wasn’t a rocket, but when I drove it, heads turned ! The C3s, with their cogent styling( thanks to Larry Shinoda), were beautiful from every angle.
Shocker. He was very personable, and I thought, a great ambassador for the marque. Maybe the truth of why this happened will leak out in the future. Hope he got aa good severance package.
Chief engineers at GM are very well compensated. Huge salaries, stock options, company cars. And they rule with an iron fist.
When Dave Hill came in he had his own people too.
Harlan was a key part of Corvette —- period! He lived and breathed it with each new generation. Improvements were passed on and new ones developed. Everyone finally got the Mid-Engine Corvette — over 50 years after Zora was trying to get it built. He and Tadge were as good as it gets for developing and promoting the brand. Hope he continues in some ways to be part of the Corvette family!