General Motors confirmed the departure of Dan Ammann, one of the key executives, responsible for guiding the company back from bankruptcy and into the transition toward electric and autonomous vehicles.
“General Motors Co. announced that Dan Ammann, chief executive officer of Cruise, is leaving the company. Kyle Vogt, Cruise President, and Chief Technical Officer will serve as interim CEO. In addition, Wesley Bush, the former Chairman and CEO of Northrop Grumman and a GM board member, will join the Cruise Board,” GM said in a statement issued after the stock market closed for the day.
GM’s announcement made no mention of Ammann’s plans after his departure. Earlier this week, when GM announced the impending departure of Pam Fletcher, the company’s chief innovation officer, the automaker noted she was going to a new position with Delta Airlines and move into her new job on Feb. 1.
Ammann originally joined GM more than a decade ago in the wake of the company’s bankruptcy in 2009.
The New Zealand-born Ammann was name GM’s Treasurer in 2010 after a career on Wall Street where he was widely considered a rising star. At the time, GM operated under the watchful eye of the U.S. Treasury Department and the company’s traditional management had been pushed aside in favor of outsiders.
Played key role in post-bankruptcy GM
Ammann is credited with helping organize GM’s successful IPO in 2011 and was considered a key lieutenant by the outsiders, first Ed Whitacre and then Dan Akerson, who were brought in to serve as GM’s chief executive officer. He became CFO and in 2014 was promoted to GM President and was frequently mentioned as a potential successor to GM CEO Mary Barra.
Ammann was GM’s president until November 2018 when he moved from Detroit to San Francisco to take over as CEO of Cruise, GM’s new automated driving subsidiary. At the time, there was something of a boom around autonomous vehicles. But since then, AV’s have since proven difficult to engineer, diluting investor enthusiasm.
Despite that, serious work on autonomous continues with Cruise testing driverless AVs in San Franciscoearlier this year with the approval of the State of California.
Future plans under debate
However, with shares of new electric vehicle stocks such as Rivian and Lucid booming, GM has come under pressure from investors and Wall Street to spin off Cruise, which is still basically a startup company with little revenue and heavy losses, into what appears to be a hot market for transportation-oriented issues.
Barra, however, has opposed the idea of a spinoff publicly and she also has taken steps to tie Cruise more tightly to GM. Cruise recently confirmed it will begin assembling the Origin, the new autonomous vehicle it intends to sell initially in the Middle East in 2023 or 2024, at a GM factory in Detroit.
Barra also said during the “Investors Day” presentation in Detroit this fall she expects Cruise to remain an integral part of GM’s plans and the company’s value equation, a point re-iterated in GM’s statement on Ammann’s departure. Ammann never suggested, at least publicly, that he disagreed with Barra’s plans.
“Alongside this leadership change, GM will accelerate the strategy the company detailed in its recent Investor Day, in which Cruise will play an integral role in building GM’s autonomous vehicle (AV) platform as GM aggressively pursues addressable AV markets beyond rideshare and delivery, “the GM statement said.
The GM statement added GM is deeply committed to its vision of zero crashes, zero emissions, zero congestion, and AV technology will play a critical role in realizing it.
“Under GM’s ownership to date, Cruise has seized the leadership position in commercial autonomous ridesharing and has created significant value for both GM shareholders and Cruise’s minority shareholders,” the statement said.
“By continuing to work together, GM and Cruise bring massive manufacturing and technological scale to autonomy that will rapidly drive costs down. The integrated strategy will also maximize GM and Cruise’s total addressable market by leveraging synergies, leading to greater, more sustainable value for both GM and Cruise shareholders,” the statement said.
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