General Motors Executive Vice President Global Manufacturing and Labor Relations Gerald Johnson (middle) watches as engineers and technicians set-up and test the machines that shall be used to fabricate Level 1 face masks at a plant in Warren, Michigan.
Photo by John F. Martin for General Motors
DETROIT – General Motors’ long-time head of producing is retiring, and the corporate has hired a former Tesla and Google executive to fill his shoes.
The Detroit automaker said on Tuesday that Gerald Johnson, executive vp of Global Manufacturing and Sustainability, will pass the baton to Jens Peter “JP” Clausen, a former executive with Tesla, Lego and, most recently, Google.
Johnson’s departure is not unexpected after a 44-year tenure with the automaker, nonetheless GM also announced one other more surprising departure on Tuesday: that of Mike Abbott, executive vp of software and services.
GM said Abbott, a former Apple executive who began with the automaker in May, shall be stepping down as a consequence of health reasons.
In a LinkedIn post, Abbott said since late last yr he has been “facing some serious health issues involving my heart which have not improved.” He continued, “as a father and husband, i would like to prioritize my recovery and be with my family with the hope that my health will improve over time.”
Baris Cetinok, current vp of product in software and services, has been named Abbott’s interim substitute while a search is conducted. Cetinok, also a former Apple executive, began with GM in September.
The changes are effective April 2, but GM said Johnson will remain with automaker through the remainder of the yr.
The hiring of Clausen is especially notable, as GM and other automakers try and match or surpass Tesla in manufacturing batteries and powertrains for electric vehicles.
Clausen spent nearly 14 years at toymaker Lego, then joined Tesla during a period of in depth growth and tumult at the corporate, from 2015 to 2019.
Reporting to CEO Elon Musk and former CTO JB Straubel, Clausen served as vp of Tesla’s first battery manufacturing plant, often called the Nevada Gigafactory, outside of Reno.
Clausen led a rapid expansion of that factory and before he left had been tasked with finding ways for Tesla to scale back the quantity of scrap and waste it was generating while the EV maker was growing from a distinct segment player to a mass-market autos business.
When Clausen joined Tesla, the now U.S. EV leader was producing its higher-end sedan, the Model S, and its falcon-wing Model X SUV. By the point he left, the corporate had begun mass manufacturing and delivering its entry-level Model 3 sedan, which stays its most accessible electric automobile.
After his tenure at Tesla, Clausen worked at Zymergen, an artificial biology company funded by Softbank and later acquired by an enormous competitor, Gingko Bioworks. After the merger, Clausen moved on to a job at Google as a vp of engineering for the corporate’s Data Center Advanced Technology Innovation group, where he worked on environmentally responsible cooling solutions for data centers, amongst other sustainable growth initiatives.
Clausen’s last day with Google shall be March 29, a spokesperson for the corporate said in an e-mail.
Clausen just isn’t the one ex-Tesla executive to affix GM. The corporate’s board members include former Tesla President of Global Sales and Service Jon McNeill and it recently hired Kurt Kelty, who led Tesla battery development for 11 years, as its vp of batteries.
