General Motors Co. announced a series of leadership changes on Friday, including new heads for North America and for the Buick and GMC brands worldwide.
Effective immediately, Rory Harvey – executive vice president and president of GM Global Markets, which includes GM North America, GM International and GM China – will assume the day-to-day responsibilities of leading the automaker in North America and its global brands. He replaces Marissa West, president of North America, who is leaving the Detroit-based automaker after more than 20 years with the company.
Effective September 1, Duncan Aldred, global vice president of Buick and GMC, will report to Harvey in his new role as vice president of commercial growth strategy and operations, responsible for a number of key areas that GM is looking to grow and that could see disruption, including distribution, subscriptions, commercial vehicles and parts.
Aldred’s role, according to a company job description, is to “take the customer experience and drive to new levels.” He will oversee the following teams: customer care and aftersales, GM Envolve commercial vehicle division, vehicle service provider OnStar, GM Energy, global commercial operations, sales operations and retail innovation, and digital sales and services.
Aldred will be replaced by Jaclyn McQuaid, President of GM Europe. Her successor will be announced at a later date.
“GM is reducing the complexity of our organization to better integrate global markets, move faster and serve customers around the world,” GM spokesman Kevin Kelly said in a statement. “The structural changes we are making will help modernize our end-to-end customer experience and create growth opportunities for our products and services.”
West has held numerous leadership roles in engineering, product and sales in the U.S. and Canada. Harvey began his career more than 30 years ago with experience at GM’s former European brands, Cadillac, and GM sales, service and marketing across the entire North American portfolio of automotive and connected services brands. In January, he took over global markets, leading teams around the world to offer customers the right mix of vehicles, software and technologies.
Aldred also held leadership positions at GM’s former European brands, Vauxhall and Opel, before taking his positions at Buick and GMC in 2014. Before taking over as Europe leader in 2022, McQuaid served as senior chief engineer for full-size trucks.
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