The curious exit of GM's Barry Engle

Editor's note: An earlier version of this column misspelled the surname of Cruise CEO Dan Ammann.

We know Carlos Tavares as the CEO of PSA Group, the French automaker that bought Opel from General Motors and is about to merge with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles.

What is less known is how he let the world know he was available for hire. In August 2013, when he was COO of Renault, he told a Bloomberg reporter that he would like to lead GM or Ford.

That apparently did not go over well at Renault, where Carlos Ghosn was firmly entrenched as chief executive. Two weeks later, Tavares was gone. By year's end, though, his strategy appeared to pay off. He landed a CEO job — not in Detroit but with another big automaker nonetheless: PSA.

That has to rank among the most unconventional paths to a coveted job this industry has ever seen.

But this month's announcement of Barry Engle's departure from GM also stands out among the curious cases.

Engle came to GM five years ago as president of South America. He arrived with a rich pedigree, including a long tenure at Ford.

In the span of a few years, he earned some big promotions, including president of GM International and, in 2019, head of North America.

And now he's headed out. His bosses Mary Barra and Mark Reuss said in a letter to dealers that he's leaving to pursue his goal of becoming a CEO and that Steve Carlisle will succeed him Sept. 1.

That's right: Engle's still on the payroll while openly looking for another job.

Curiously, he has already been a chief executive — three times. And if he joined GM with that title in mind, well, the math certainly wasn't in his favor. CEO Barra, now 58, is just two years older than Engle. Dan Ammann, who was president when Engle joined and is now running Cruise, is 48. Reuss, GM's current president, was born three months before Engle.

We've all seen enough "retired to spend more time with family" statements to know that there's often a story behind the PR account of executive departures. Sometimes, the real story is known to only a tight-lipped few. Colleagues and the press are fooling themselves if they think they know otherwise.

But Engle seemed to be in a good spot. GM rebounded from last year's UAW strike to post solid first-quarter profits, anchored by North America. The Silverado is again the No. 2 big pickup on the market, regaining the spot from Ram.

In June, Automotive News wrote a Page 1 story about Engle's unique ability to connect with dealers.

Engle's handlers aren't letting him speak. So without the benefit of a direct discussion, we'll let Barra and Reuss' explanation hold — as odd as it may seem to Detroit's ears.

Lindy Greer is an associate professor at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business and faculty director of the school's Sanger Leadership Center.

She says for older, more bureaucratic organizations, a move like Engle's is unusual.

Not so in the startup world, where perpetual churn is the norm. The talent that fits an organization today may not be the right fit tomorrow. And to have executives openly seeking positions elsewhere can be viewed more as a badge of honor than an embarrassment.

Let's hope something like that is playing out at GM.

It's a much more appealing scenario than having a company attract seasoned leaders only to have them, inevitably, find themselves unable to fit into the culture they've joined.