Another reason to celebrate? Newly-promoted Tom Stephens shown here last week with the Car of the Year trophy for Chevy Volt.
In ballpark lingo, it helps to have a scorecard to keep up with the players, as General Motors continues to shake up its top management ranks.
Just days after ousting the head of OnStar and realigning its marketing management team, GM has appointed product development chief Tom Stephens its new Chief Technology Officer, a job that will have the veteran exec overseeing everything from in-car infotainment to advanced battery propulsion systems.
To fill Stephens old role, GM is appointing its first-ever woman “car czar.” As global vice president of product development, Mary Barra will oversee design, engineering, program management – and, critically, quality improvement efforts – for the automaker’s 11 worldwide brands.
Mary Barra moves from Human Resources to become GM's new global product czar.
Stephens will take on his new duties on February 1, just short of two years after being named product development chief. He took that job as GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz began phasing into retirement.
His new post will be a critical one. “Job one is to identify the mega trends and understand the competition,” said Stephens, a 42-year GM veteran.
As Mark Reuss, GM’s president for North America, recently explained to TheDetroitBureau.com, “We can no longer afford to be just ‘competitive.’ We have to lead in everything we do.”
That notably includes the maker’s efforts to electrify its vehicle line-up. It recently won the coveted North American Car of the Year trophy with the 2011 Chevrolet Volt plug-in – besting both Nissan’s Leaf battery-electric vehicle and the Hyundai Sonata hybrid – but the maker plans to push even further into battery propulsion and recently announced plans to add 1,000 new engineers and support staff specifically for that effort.
But innovation is also impacting the interior of the car, where the OnStar system is being merged with newer infotainment technologies.
“Tom will make sure that GM technology keeps up with our customers and keeps ahead of our competitors,” said CEO Dan Akerson, in a statement.
A former telecommunications industry leader, Akerson has been pressing hard to not only expand the use of technology in GM’s vehicles but also to speed up its implementation. Indeed, he believes that the automaker must operate more like a Silicon Valley start-up than a traditionally sluggish car company if it hopes to regain its position as an industry benchmark.
That appears to have been one reason GM ousted automotive veteran Chris Preuss, earlier this week, from his job as OnStar chief, replacing him with telecomm industry import Linda Marshall. (Click Here for the full story.) The automaker also bumped North American marketing chief Joel Ewanick into a new global marketing post, giving his regional duties to Chip Perry. Both Ewanick and Perry were recruited away from Hyundai, where they were seen as fast-acting trendsetters.
The various shake-ups, this week, underscore the dramatic changes that have swept through GM since it entered Chapter 11 protection, in May 2009. Stephens, who will remain on the powerful GM executive committee in his new job, is the only top-tier executive to have remained in the upper strata of management since then. Reuss, the son of a former GM president leapfrogged into his current position.
As will Barra who will, in her new post, oversee 36,000 General Motors employees worldwide. The move comes as a surprise to many observers considering the 49-year-old executive has been overseeing human resources operations since 2009.
“Mary will bring a fresh perspective to the critically important job of developing vehicles that delight global customers,” said CEO Akerson.
Barra is no stranger to product development, however. She previously served as a vice president of global manufacturing engineering – a critical role in setting up the leaner, more flexible production system that GM has been migrating to – and also was executive director of competitive operations engineering.
“Her broad experience in engineering, manufacturing and staff functions, combined with the ability to collaborate and build strong relationships will enhance the company’s ability to deliver the products today’s consumers demand,” said Akerson.