GM announces big change to top leadership

Cadillac boss Carlisle tapped to replace departing Engle

Jamie L. LaReau

General Motors is making top changes to its leadership as a veteran executive leaves the company.

GM’s longtime executive vice president and president of North America Barry Engle is leaving “to pursue leadership opportunities that leverage his broad executive expertise in a variety of industries,” the automaker said in a statement.

A source familiar with the move said, at age 56, Engle has a final chance to run a company and has started the search. Engle has been the CEO of many companies earlier in his career, including having been a car dealer.

GM has tapped Cadillac boss Steve Carlisle, 58, to replace Engle effective Sept. 1. Carlisle has been president of Cadillac since April 2018.

“Steve will help us scale the considerable transformation progress we have been making, while at the same time preserving the sufficient autonomy necessary to maintain four distinct vehicle brands,” said GM Chairman and CEO Mary Barra in a statement.

GM’s transformation consists of increasing its commitment to electric vehicles as the company seeks to offer an all-electric portfo

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lio one day. GM had tagged Cadillac as the brand to unveil its electric vehicle offers ahead of other GM brands. Carlisle has said he envisions Cadillac’s lineup being all-electric by 2030.

“This role will build on Steve’s progressive leadership within GM, particularly over the past two years at Cadillac,” Barra said. “This change will also improve the collaboration and decision making that fuel innovation.”

Analysts say Carlisle is suited to steer the ship in what’s expected to be a shifting market.

“In the year Engle was in charge, he faced extreme challenges with the labor strike and then the global pandemic. Given the current operating environment it would be difficult for anyone to effect meaningful change,” said Jessica Caldwell, executive director of insights at Edmunds. “Being a GM lifer, Carlisle is likely to have a solid understanding of more areas of the business, which gives him the opportunity to pivot quickly because things can change dramatically day to day.”

With Carlisle’s appointment, GM will have one sales, service and marketing leader across its full portfolio of automotive and connected services brands in North America, including Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, Cadillac, OnStar, ACDelco and GM Genuine Parts. He will report to GM President Mark Reuss.

That means that Carlisle will still head Cadillac — along with all of GM’s other brands. But Cadillac’s daily global operations will be run by Rory Harvey, 52, whose title will be vice president of Cadillac sales, service and marketing. He will report to Carlisle.

Harvey joined Cadillac in March 2018 as vice president of Cadillac North America sales, service and marketing.

“Rory has been one of the chief architects of Cadillac’s brand strategy, working with Steve,” Barra said. “He has a strong commitment to Cadillac, its dealers and customers, so we will have great continuity as Steve takes on broader responsibilities.”

Harvey was chairman and managing director of Vauxhall Motors in the UK before coming to Cadillac. GM has since sold Vauxhall. Throughout his more than 30 years with GM, Harvey has held a variety of positions in Europe and Middle East.

Carlisle began his career with GM in 1982 as an industrial engineering co-op student at the Oshawa Truck Assembly Plant. He was born and raised in Woodstock, Ontario. From November 2014 until he joined Cadillac, Carlisle was president and managing director of GM Canada.

Carlisle has held other senior leadership jobs at GM, including vice president of global product planning and program management, vice president of U.S. sales operations and president and managing director of southeast Asia operations.

Engle joined GM in 2015 as president of GM South America. In October 2017 he was appointed President of GM International and ran all operations outside of North America and China. Engle served as executive vice president and president of GM North America since November 2019. He was president of The Americas from April through October 2019.

Contact Jamie L. LaReau: 313-222-2149 or jlareau@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @jlareauan.

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