Departures
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Here are 10 auto industry leaders who called it a career.
Wayne Brannon
Brannon, 56, retired as head of Chevrolet Europe after 38 years at General Motors. He was born in Detroit and began his career at Cadillac in 1973 as a co-op student from General Motors Institute, now Kettering University. During his career, Brannon held sales and marketing positions for North America, Africa, the Middle East and South America. Most recently, as president and managing director of Chevrolet Europe since 2006, he doubled the brand's sales there.
Sue Cischke
Cischke, 57, will retire Feb. 1 after 35 years in the auto industry, most recently as group vice president of safety and environmental engineering at Ford Motor Co. Before joining Ford in 2001 she spent more than two decades at the former Chrysler Corp. and DaimlerChrysler in a number of engineering jobs. Cischke was honored three times by Automotive News as one of the 100 Leading Women in the North American Auto Industry.
Carl-Peter Forster
Hynes retired as president of Gulf States Toyota Inc. on June 30. Hynes, 64, had headed the privately held distributor of Toyota and Scion vehicles in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Texas since 1999. Prior to joining Gulf States Toyota, he worked at Ford for 30 years in a number of positions in sales, marketing and finance.
Jan Ake Jonsson
Liddell started his brief automotive career in January 2010 when he joined the new GM after five years as CFO of Microsoft. At GM, as vice chairman and CFO, he led GM through the largest initial public offering in Wall Street history. Liddell had been considered a prime candidate to succeed Ed Whitacre as CEO, but the board hired Dan Akerson instead. So on April 1, just weeks short of his 53rd birthday, Liddell moved on.
Jim O'Donnell
O'Donnell took over as CEO of BMW of North America in July 2008, just as the country was plunging into recession. He strengthened the brand's equity and luxury image in North America. O'Donnell joined the BMW Group in 1990, after having worked at Ford since 1979. He retired at age 61.
Mike O'Driscoll
Jaguar Managing Director O'Driscoll, then 54, retired from day-to-day operations at Jaguar Land Rover at the end of March. He began his automotive career with Jaguar Rover Triumph in 1975 and travelled with the brand to Ford, where it was part of the Premier Automotive Group. O'Driscoll was president of Jaguar Land Rover North America before being tapped for the managing directorship.
Nick Reilly
Reilly, who turned 62 in December, stepped down as president of GM Europe at the end of the year but will stay on as an adviser until he retires in March. Before taking charge of GM Europe, Reilly headed GM's international operations from a base in Shanghai. The Welshman is a former managing director of Vauxhall who joined GM in 1975 with the former Detroit Diesel Allison Division in the United Kingdom.
Laura Soave
When Fiat returned to North America, Soave seemed the perfect choice to lead the Italian brand. She had an engaging, friendly personality, she spoke Italian, and she knew the ins and outs of selling a European brand from her days at Volkswagen. She reported directly to Fiat/Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne. But the brand got off to a stumbling start. In November, Marchionne replaced Soave, 39, who left the company after just 20 months.
