Where are they now?
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EDITOR'S NOTE: We incorrectly identified the location of the headquarters of Carpenter Technology Corp., which is Wyomissing, Penn.
The Detroit 3, facing a rising wave of red ink in the middle of the last decade, shed hourly workers and managers as they restructured. Not just once, but repeatedly. Then came a recession and bankruptcy for General Motors and Chrysler. The executive exodus continued, and the paring of personnel reached from the factory floor to the CEO's suite. Today the Detroit 3 are profitable again. But the head count at GM, Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler is well below former peak levels.
Where did the departed executives go?
Some took early retirement, whether voluntarily or not, and stayed retired. Others took the retirement package and went searching for a new job, maybe in automotive, maybe not. In many cases, the auto industry's loss has become another industry's gain.
In the following pages, Automotive News tracks down some of the thousands of Detroit 3 managers who left automakers during that era of restructuring, recession and bankruptcy. We've focused on relatively high-profile executives, those whom our readers are most likely to have known.
 | Bob Nardelli |
Bob Nardelli
On the day Chrysler filed for Chapter 11 reorganization in 2009, Nardelli announced that he would leave the company. He returned to Cerberus Capital Management, the private equity firm that had made him CEO almost two years earlier.
In 2009, Nardelli became the CEO of Freedom Group, a Madison, N.C., manufacturer of Remington and other guns and ammunition that also was owned by Cerberus. (Cerberus announced this month that it was selling Freedom Group, which produced the assault rifle used in the Connecticut school shootings.)
While at Freedom Group, Nardelli brought in Ron Kolka, a former Chrysler CFO who left the automaker in 2009, to be Freedom Group's CFO.
This year, Nardelli stepped down from his CEO positions at both Cerberus Operations and Advisory Co., a unit of the firm, as well as at Freedom Group. Nardelli, 64, said in a statement that he was stepping down from both roles to devote his attention to his own investment and consulting company, XLR-8.
He could not be reached for comment. In a goodbye letter to Chrysler employees published in Automotive News at the time of his departure from the automaker, Nardelli commended workers for their perseverance.
"What I have learned along the way is that Chrysler people also have the resolute heart of a scrappy underdog," he said in the letter. "This is a company that has been knocked down many times, but never knocked out."
-- Brianna Valleskey
 | Rick Wagoner |
Rick Wagoner
Wagoner, 59, was General Motors' CEO for nearly a decade. Then, in March 2009, he offered to resign if that would help the automaker's bankruptcy and bailout by the government -- and President Obama took him up on the offer.
Since then, Wagoner has maintained a low profile, serving on boards but not taking another management position. He did not respond to calls seeking comment for this article.
Wagoner has been a member of Duke University's Board of Trustees since 2001, and currently is its chairman. He is also on the board of Duke's Fuqua School of Business. Wagoner received a B.A. in economics from Duke in 1975. He also has been a member of the boards of aluminum recycler Aleris International and its parent, Aleris Holding Co., since before his departure from GM. In 2010 he joined Bill Gates and Warren Buffett on the board of the Washington Post Co.
-- Brianna Valleskey
 | Mary Boland |
Mary Boland
Boland spun a new financial career in the apparel world after she left General Motors in 2006.
After more than 20 years with GM, eventually rising to CFO of North America, Boland left to become CFO of Levi Strauss & Co. North America. She eventually became senior vice president of finance for Global Levi's.
This year, Boland left Levi Strauss to become CFO of American Eagle Outfitters Inc. of Pittsburgh, another apparel company .
Boland was one of the 100 Leading Women in the North American Auto Industry profiled by Automotive News in 2005.
"The auto industry is now probably worse off than it was in 2005 when it comes to female representation," Boland told Automotive News in 2010.
-- Brianna Valleskey
 | Anne Stevens |
Anne Stevens
After leaving Ford Motor Co., where she was COO of the Americas, in 2006, Stevens became the CEO of two companies in succession.
Stevens, an engineer with extensive industrial experience across the global automotive, aerospace and oil sectors, was the CEO of specialty metals producer Carpenter Technology Corp., of Wyomissing, Penn., in 2006-09. Carpenter has revenues of about $2 billion a year.
She then joined SA IT Services as the CEO in January 2011. SA IT, of Atlanta, delivers IT services and support through a staff of more than 300 technical professionals.
Stevens, 64, has sat on the board of directors of aerospace company Lockheed Martin Corp. since 2002, and on the board of United Kingdom mining company Anglo American since May 2012.
Before joining Ford, Stevens held various engineering, manufacturing, and marketing positions with Exxon Mobil Corp. from 1980 to 1990. Stevens was named one of the 100 Leading Women in the North American Auto Industry by Automotive News in 2005.
-- Brianna Valleskey
 | Mark LaNeve |
Mark LaNeve
LaNeve gets to work around 9 a.m. these days. It's a welcome respite from his General Motors days, when he had a daily 7 a.m. meeting.
In July he became COO of WPP Group's Global Team Detroit, Ford Motor Co.'s advertising agency. After years as a corporate client, LaNeve, 53, is now on the flip side, working for an ad agency.
"It's a different view, but it's still the car business. I'm still helping to market and sell cars," LaNeve told Automotive News.
The car business is all LaNeve has known since graduating from the University of Virginia in 1981. He went to work for General Motors doing various marketing and field sales assignments for Cadillac, rising to director of Cadillac's marketing in 1993 and brand manager for the Pontiac Bonneville in 1995. He left GM in 1997 to become vice president of marketing and later CEO of Volvo Cars of North America, then owned by Ford. In 2001 he returned as general manager of Cadillac. In 2004 he became GM's North America vice president of sales, service and marketing.
A few months after GM declared bankruptcy in 2009, he left to become chief marketing officer for Allstate Corp. in Northbrook, Ill. There he oversaw creation of the insurance company's eye-catching "Mayhem" advertising. LaNeve resigned from Allstate in February.
Says LaNeve: "I learned a lot in the insurance industry, but the car business gets in your blood."
-- Jamie LaReau
 | Jim Taylor |
Jim Taylor
Former Cadillac boss Taylor took the summer of 2010 off to "detox."
After working 30 years at General Motors and weathering its bankruptcy, Taylor, 56, was spent, he told Automotive News.
Then in the fall of 2010, Taylor became CEO of startup AMP Electric Vehicles in Cincinnati. AMP converts commercial trucks into electric vehicles.
"It's a bit of a lottery ticket -- any startup is -- but it's fun. You carve your own way," Taylor said. "It's stressful because you're always living on the ragged edge of survival."
In July, Taylor became chairman of AMP and another startup, Axios Mobile Assets. Axios, of Toronto, makes plastic shipping pallets, an eco-friendly alternative to traditional wood pallets. Working at smaller companies gives Taylor more freedom to make quick decisions and have a flexible schedule compared with the giant bureaucracy of GM, he said.
"In my old job, I had 10 minutes that I could decide what to do with each day. The other nine hours were booked in meetings," Taylor said. "Now it's very self-directed."
Taylor started at GM of Canada in 1980 as an industrial engineer. He progressed through several operations jobs before becoming vehicle line executive for Cadillac in 1995, a post he held until 2005. His most public roles were as global president of Cadillac from 2005 to 2008, then as CEO of Hummer from 2008 to 2010.
Taylor misses the auto industry people most, he said.
"What I liked about the Cadillac and Hummer jobs was working with dealers," Taylor said. "They're independent businesspeople. They're honest and that's refreshing."
-- Jamie LaReau
 | Julie Roehm |
Julie Roehm
Roehm became entangled in controversy as a Chrysler marketer. When she left, the controversies continued.
Roehm was with Chrysler for five years, where she was a part of the team that coined the Dodge tag line "Grab life by the horns." Her affinity for risky steps, such as advertising on the Lingerie Bowl, gave her a reputation for walking on the wild side. She was named one of the 100 Leading Women in the North American Auto Industry by Automotive News in 2005.
Roehm left Chrysler in 2006 to become senior vice president of marketing at Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Ten months later she was fired by Wal-Mart amid allegations of accepting bribes, including accompanying one of the agencies in the retailer's $580 million advertising-account review to a fancy dinner at a Nobu restaurant.
In the weeks after her dismissal, accusations of an intimate relationship between Roehm and a subordinate surfaced. Roehm admits to having received favors from ad agencies, but denies the other allegations.
Roehm had her own consulting firm from early 2007 through 2011, working with companies from the automotive, financial services, manufacturing and other industries. In January 2012, Bill McDermott, co-CEO of German software giant SAP AG, recruited Roehm, giving her the title of Chief Storyteller.
"I love the title," she said, "And, honestly, it gets a lot of attention."
Roehm, 41, said there are many similarities to working at any big company, but the differences depend on the culture and vision of the people, rather than on the company itself.
SAP's mission of helping the world run better and improving people's lives intrigued Roehm, she said. The business-to-business nature of the company also pleases her.
Said Roehm: "It's a real joy for me to practice my B2B chops in a B2B business and also help make the world a better place."
-- Brianna Valleskey
 | John Middlebrook |
John Middlebrook
For most of his 49-year General Motors career, Middlebrook was involved with GM's NASCAR activities. And he counts as one of his proudest accomplishments returning the Chevrolet Corvette to racing in 1999, after a 42-year hiatus.
So it should come as no surprise that Middlebrook, who retired in 2008 from his post as head of Chevy's global marketing, sales and service, has not strayed far from the track.
He's in his fourth year as NASCAR's chief appellate officer.
That means Middlebrook, 71, is the final judge of any penalty appeals that drivers request. Appeals first go to a three-person panel. After that, they go to Middlebrook.
He fields only "a handful" of appeals each year, so it's "not a time-consuming job." But it's enough to scratch his racing itch.
"The NASCAR role is fun for me and keeps me connected to the sport," Middlebrook wrote in an e-mail to Automotive News, noting that he was in Charlotte, N.C., that day to hear a case. "I get to a number of races each year and keep in contact with many of the team owners, drivers and crew chiefs."
In addition to the top spot at Chevy, Middlebrook held several marketing and product planning roles at GM and ran Pontiac from 1989 to 1996.
-- Mike Colias
Deborah Wahl Meyer
Meyer was Chrysler Group's chief marketing officer when she left in 2008. Now she's out of the auto industry but still marketing big-ticket items.
She was recruited by home builder PulteGroup Inc. of suburban Detroit.
In the auto industry, she said, "I was working with the second-largest consumer purchase. And now I'm working with the first."
Meyer, 50, says her nearly 20 years of experience in the auto industry prepared her to be a chief marketing officer in other industries. Before Chrysler, she worked for Ford Motor Co. and was the top marketer at Toyota Motor Corp.'s Lexus brand in the United States. She was named one of the 100 Leading Women in the North American Auto Industry by Automotive News in 2005.
"There's so many opportunities from the skill set I got from the automotive industry," she said.
Meyer has been working with PulteGroup for just over three years. She is the only female on the management team.
"It seems like I always end up in those industries where there aren't that many women in leadership roles," she said. "Still working on increasing that number."
-- Brianna Valleskey
Barbara Gasper
Gasper, 58, says it took her only three years with Ford Motor Co. to turn into a car person. After leaving Ford in 2006, she was recruited by MasterCard Worldwide -- before it was a public company -- to set up an investor relations office. Gasper then oversaw investor relations during the company's initial public stock offering.
"Doing an IPO is one of those fun, attractive things that people would like to do, but don't really get a chance to," she says.
Gasper was vice president of investor relations from 2003 to 2006 at Ford. She was named one of the 100 Leading Women in the North American Auto Industry by Automotive News in 2005.
During her career, Gasper has done investor relations in five industries. "Mine is the type of career that isn't necessarily industry specific," she says.
Gasper left before Alan Mullaly was recruited from Boeing Corp. to become Ford's CEO. She said it would have been interesting to be a part of the changes that helped navigate Ford through the economic crisis without a government bailout. Even after leaving the industry, Gasper said she still has an affinity for Ford.
She says: "I'm watching from afar and cheering them."
-- Brianna Valleskey
Steven Landry
Since he resigned from Chrysler on June 10, 2009, the day Chrysler emerged from bankruptcy under Fiat management, Landry has traveled a long way. To be exact, 11,180 miles.
Landry's 27-year career at Chrysler included a number of key posts: president of Chrysler Europe, president of DaimlerChrysler Canada, global Dodge brand head and executive vice president for sales and marketing.
Six months after leaving Chrysler, Landry joined the board of ATCO Group, a Calgary, Alberta, energy infrastructure company. Landry, a native of Halifax, Nova Scotia, suggested ATCO enter the Australian market. The company asked him to select a city and open an office there. He chose Perth, on the Indian Ocean three time zones west of Sydney.
"I was initially afraid about making the transition from being a car guy to an energy person," said Landry in a phone interview. But his trepidation didn't slow him down.
As managing director of ATCO's Australian operations, he has overseen rapid growth. On Landry's watch, ATCO has grown from four to 450 employees in Australia and has acquired a $989 million natural gas distribution system including an 8,000-mile pipeline and a new power station.
Landry, 54, and his wife, Marcelle, kept their house in suburban Detroit. He's not sure what he'll do when his three-year Australia hitch is up next year. He doubts he'll return to the auto industry any time soon, though he has met Chrysler Group CEO Sergio Marchionne twice for coffee.
But his automotive loyalties remain steadfast: "I drive a loaded Jeep Grand Cherokee Overland with right-hand drive," he says, "and would never drive anything else because it's in my blood."
-- Bradford Wernle
Chet Huber
Huber says he had planned to retire when he turned 55. When he reached that age, he had been at General Motors for 37 years and, as president of OnStar, he felt that he had gotten the telematics operation to a good financial place. So Huber left GM in 2009 a couple of months after the automaker re-emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which coincidentally occurred on his 55th birthday.
"In GM's case, there was a pretty major set of windows opening," Huber said. "It was a very large group of GM folks whose offramp was basically the same."
After Huber had been retired for a year and a half, he was asked to teach at Harvard Business School, his alma mater.
He now is a senior lecturer of business administration. His class, Building and Sustaining a Successful Enterprise, includes OnStar as a case study.
Huber also does consulting and advising.
"I'm enjoying this," he said. It "gives me a great opportunity to be in a different environment than the automotive industry."
-- Brianna Valleskey
Fritz Henderson
In December 2009, eight months after replacing Rick Wagoner as CEO of General Motors, Henderson resigned. Henderson's tenure as CEO was the shortest in GM's history. He was replaced by Ed Whitacre.
Henderson was a consultant for GM from February to September 2010. From March to August he was also a consultant for restructuring specialist AlixPartners.
In late 2010 he joined Sunoco Inc. as a senior vice president. Sunoco was planning to spin off its coke-making assets as a public company. That company became SunCoke Energy Inc. in 2011, and Henderson was named CEO.
SunCoke, of suburban Chicago, sells coke to steelmakers and has annual revenues of less than $2 billion from its U.S. coal mines and coke-making operations in the United States and Brazil. Henderson has laid out a strategy for the company that calls for growing both domestically and in developing markets such as Brazil, China, Eastern Europe and India.
-- Brianna Valleskey
