GM’s Reuss rises to president

GENERAL Motors has appointed former Holden chairman and managing director and current global product chief Mark Reuss as company president, succeeding Dan Ammann who is now leading the US auto giant’s Cruise autonomous vehicle unit.

 

The move sees Mr Reuss, 55, add responsibility for GM’s quality organisation to his current role, which as well as leading the global product group includes oversight of the Cadillac luxury brand.

 

In the product role alone, Mr Reuss is responsible for areas such as global design, engineering, safety, quality, R&D, advanced vehicle technology, purchasing and supply chain organisation, as well as the product planning and program management of all GM cars, trucks and SUVs worldwide.

 

The company announced in November that Mr Ammann, 46, would be reassigned to the new autonomous vehicle division at the start of this year, but his replacement was not named. 

 

In a statement released this week, GM chairman and CEO Mary Barra said: “Mark’s global operational experience, deep product knowledge and strong leadership will serve us well as we continue to strengthen our current business, take advantage of growth opportunities and further define the future of personal mobility.

 

“Mark has played a critical role in leading the development of the company’s award-winning vehicles while transitioning his team to prepare for growing electrification and autonomous technologies.”

 

Mr Reuss, whose father Lloyd served as GM president in the early 1990s, said he was “very proud to have spent my entire career at General Motors, and to now take on this new role is truly a great honour”. 

 

“With our current line-up of outstanding cars, trucks and crossovers around the world, I’m looking forward to keeping our momentum going at full speed,” he said. 

 

An engineer who was born and raised in Detroit, Mr Reuss joined GM as a student intern in 1983 and served as Holden’s boss from early 2008 to mid-2009, steering it through the global financial crisis and ensuring the Australian subsidiary survived as various other brands were cut and the ‘New GM’ was formed in the wake of the company’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy. 

 

He has continued to be an advocate of Holden since returning to Detroit to become vice-president of global vehicle engineering, and as his rise through the ranks has brought further responsibilities over the past decade – including GM’s North American operations, global product development and, since June last year, Cadillac and global portfolio planning.

 

Cadillac will now introduce a new vehicle every six month through to 2021, while Mr Reuss has, according to GM, “been leading the transformation of the company’s global product development workforce and processes to drive world-class levels of engineering in advanced technologies and improve quality and speed to market”.

 

This includes a doubling of resources allocated to electric and autonomous vehicle programs in the next two years, some of which will be run out of Australia. 

 

In August last year, Mr Reuss pledged GM’s full support for Holden, saying there was no chance that the company will offload the Australian franchise as it did Opel and Vauxhall.

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