GM designer Dave Lyon with the GMC Acadia Denali at the 2013 Chicago Auto Show.
The revolving door at General Motors continues to spin ever faster. And designer Dave Lyon is the latest to fly out onto the street.
His unexpected departure was confirmed just as GM announced the “voluntary” termination of global marketing chief Joel Ewanick. But at least a half-dozen other senior executives have either left or been shoved out from the maker’s global empire in recent weeks, including the head of GM’s battery-car program.
The 43-year-old Lyon was considered a rising star within the GM design world and could have firmed up his future in the assignment he was expected to take in the coming days as head of styling for the troubled Opel/Vauxhall subsidiary.
Lyon had already earned a solid reputation for his work on products as diverse as the GMC Acadia Denali and the new Cadillac XTS. He oversaw development of the interior design for the Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid, as well.
Lyon, who joined GM in 1990, also played a lead role in helping design the user interfaces for a variety of GM’s new infotainment systems, including the Chevrolet MyLink technology debuting on the new Malibu, as well as the well-reviewed Cadillac CUE. The latter system, short for Cadillac User Interface, bears some striking similarities to the Apple iOS mobile operating system – a user can pinch to zoom out on the Navi screen, for example, and CUE uses a voice interface similar to Apple’s iPhone Siri technology.
Lyon was expected to arrive in Germany on Wednesday of this week after being appointed vice president of design for GM Europe last June. It was to have been the latest in a series of overseas assignments. Lyon previously served as executive director of GM’s Asia Pacific design operations from 2004 to 2007.
No reason has been given for his departure. It’s unclear if it has anything to do with a global restructuring of GM Design that was announced earlier this month. That move was explained as being aimed at better integrating development for the various GM brands as the maker continues its migration to shared vehicle global platforms.
A graduate of Detroit’s College for Creative Studies, Lyon would have faced some serious challenges in his new assignment. The European market is, on the whole, in free-fall as the European economy struggles under the weight of a continent-wide debt crisis. But Opel, in particular, is steadily losing share, as well as volume, and running up massive losses that could top $2 billion this year, GM has signaled.
A number of senior GM Europe executives have been ousted in recent weeks, including CEO Karl-Friedrich Stracke, who was replaced on the interim by GM Vice Chairman Steve Girsky. Girsky, a former Wall Street automotive analyst, has been working up a turnaround plan expected to slash both capacity and employment in Europe over the next few years.
The aggressiveness of that plan may have conflicted with GM’s decision to sign an expensive marketing deal with two of Britain’s most popular soccer teams, including the storied Manchester United. That deal was announced two months ago by then-global marketing chief Joel Ewanick.
The 52-year-old Ewanick was unexpectedly terminated over the weekend in what GM officially called a “voluntary…resignation.” Various sources point to issues surrounding the soccer deals as a possible explanation for the sudden move.
(For more on the Ewanick ouster, Click Here.)
Also out at GM are Tony Posawatz, who headed the Chevrolet Volt program.
As to the vacancy created by designer Lyon’s departure, GM is not saying who it will now turn to as head of Opel/Vauxhall design.