GM's Ammann vacates president role to steer AV unit

November 29, 2018 12:00 AM

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From left, Cruise Automation COO Dan Kan, Cruise Automation CEO Kyle Vogt and GM President Dan Ammann pictured last week in San Francisco.

General Motors President Dan Ammann will step down from his role to become CEO of the automaker's Cruise autonomous vehicle unit.

The move -- effective Jan. 1 -- emphasizes the importance of the operations to the future of GM, which plans to launch a public self-driving ride-hailing fleet in 2019. It also places Ammann, a former Wall Street banker who joined GM as its treasurer in 2010, to potentially lead a spin-off and initial public offering of Cruise, which analysts have speculated is eventually coming.

A successor for Ammann, 46, will not be named. GM CEO Mary Barra, 56, will absorb his responsibilities over global regions and GM Financial, while CFO Dhivya Suryadevara, 39, takes responsibility of the automaker's corporate development, the automaker said today.

Cruise's current CEO and co-founder, Kyle Vogt, will become president and chief technology officer of the operations.

Ammann and Vogt will "set the strategic direction" for Cruise. Ammann on Thursday described it as a "partnership" with Vogt leading technical side of the business and Ammann focusing on "commercialization and other scaling from a corporate point of view."

Ammann, who will be based in San Francisco, declined to comment on the possibility of a spinoff or IPO.

"All the energy right now is focused on getting to the point of initial commercial deployment," Ammann told Automotive News, later saying the company could be "open-minded to other opportunities down the road."

Bloomberg reported earlier this year that GM was talking with banks and internally about its eventual options for Cruise, including a public offering, spinoff or separate stock listing.

Ammann said he is "thrilled" to be dedicating 100 percent of his time and energy to Cruise, which is currently valued at $14.6 billion following recent investments.

“It’s our belief that this technology will only have the impact that we want it to have on the world if it’s deployed at massive scale,” Ammann said. “So, we need to be preparing for that as we continue the technology as we prepare initial commercialization.”

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A Cruise autonomous test vehicle is parked at a new charging station in San Francisco.

Spearheaded by Ammann, GM acquired San Francisco-based Cruise Automation in 2016. He has since overseen its expansion from 40 employees to more than 1,000 at the GM subsidiary.

“Dan’s talents, I think, would have been underutilized if he was the CEO when there was just 40 people at the company,” Vogt said on Thursday. “To me, it’s sort of the sweet spot where the skills that Dan has will really complement what we have on our leadership team today and take it to the next level. I think the timing is pretty good.”

Ammann relinquished other roles as president, including leading Cadillac and global portfolio planning, to GM product chief Mark Reuss in June.

The changes follow several major announcements in recent months about GM's autonomous work, including a $2.25 billion investment by the SoftBank Vision Fund of Japan and plans for Honda Motor Co. to invest $2.75 billion in the operations.

"These appointments further demonstrate our commitment to transforming mobility through the safe deployment of self-driving technology and move us closer to our vision for a future with zero crashes, zero emissions and zero congestion," Barra said in a Thursday statement. "As we move toward commercial deployment, adding Dan to the strong team led by Kyle is the next step."

The announcement also comes three days after Barra and Suryadevara announced a major restructuring of the company's North American production operations and plans to cut 15 percent of the automaker's salaried workforce, including 25 percent of its global executives. Those actions were in part driven by GM’s plans to devote more resources to emerging technologies such as self-driving and autonomous vehicles.