More Changes at GM, or “As the Crankshaft Turns”

9th December 2009

Brent Dewar

Susan Docherty, newly minted VP of sales service and marketing, lost one of her key lieutenants today. Brent Dewar, VP of Chevrolet, and one of Docherty’s direct reports under last week’s changes, announced that he will “retire” effective April 1, 2010. In the meantime, he will act as an advisor to Mark Reuss as he transitions to his new role as president of North America.

One can assume that Dewar’s “retirement” wasn’t planned in advance and was the result of the latest management changes because he was only recently repatriated to the US and because Docherty had reported to Dewar in a previous position. It seems that Dewar didn’t think he should be reporting to Docherty and/or Reuss - maybe he thinks he should have been given the job that Docherty got. Or maybe Dewar was seen as a holdover of the “old GM” regime, having spent 31 years at the General. Maybe Reuss and Docherty told him that maybe he wasn’t going to fit in at the “New” GM.

Jim Campbell

Replacing Dewar is Jim Campbell, who will be moving to Chevrolet from his position as General Manager, Fleet and Commercial Operations. Before running GM’s Fleet and Commercial Operations, Campbell held various positions in field sales, retail incentives, marketing and customer relationship management. He has played important roles in many product launches including the Chevrolet Impala, Monte Carlo, Colorado and Corvette.

Jim Bunnell will be responsible, in the interim, for Fleet and Commercial Operations until a replacement has been named to replace Jim Campbell.

In other General Motors news, Michael Richards, who was just named Buick-GMC general manager December 1, seems to be out. Although GM has not announced this (and will not comment), there are reports in the Detroit Free Press and Bloomberg News that Richards is gone. Richards, a former Ford marketing executive, had a reputation for treating employees poorly. Maybe his new bosses heard about that reputation and decided that he didn’t fit with their vision for the future. Maybe a little more due diligence would have been smart.