Petrolhead for Holden

Holden today made the shock announcement that Chris Gubbey, incumbent Chairman and Managing Director is moving on to the role of Vice President and MD for GM in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States.

His replacement at Holden has already been decided. The new MD will be Mark Reuss, who takes over the role with effect from February 1.

Gubbey, who headed up the GM operation in China before commencing with Holden as recently as August 2007, will be replacing Warren Browne in Russia. Browne is moving into a new role as Executive Director for GM Europe business development and will be focusing his energies on expanding sales in Turkey.

Reuss, currently Director of Global Vehicle Systems and Integration, will also assume the role of GM Asia/Pacific Vice President as well as Chairman and MD of Holden.

He joined GM in 1983 and, among other accomplishments, was appointed Executive Director, Architecture Engineering and GM Performance Division in 2001.

In this role, he headed up a team of 1000 staff, comprising engineers, designers and technicians. He worked on production engineering in creative design studios and contributed to the development of concept vehicles for motor shows. So he's a bit of an ideas man.

From that role, Reuss accepted the position of Executive Director, North American Vehicle Systems and Architecture in 2005.

He's a qualified Bachelor of Engineering and holds a Masters in Business Administration. Just in case it sounds like he's a bean counter, he's also a certified Industry Pool test driver for the northern loop of the Nurburgring.

Reuss is the son of Lloyd Reuss, former President of General Motors and the man behind the Buick Grand National, a popular model in the US.

Masterfully understating the situation, Nick Reilly, GM Group Vice President and President of GM Asia Pacific, said: "This is a fairly unusual move for GM."

"As a general rule, GM doesn't move executives after such a short time, especially in such an important market as Australia, but Chris's unique expertise in working within partnerships and in developing countries made him the ideal candidate to grow GM's business in Russia at this critical time.

"Mark is the ideal replacement for Chris. His extensive leadership experience, as well as his product engineering and manufacturing knowledge, will be hugely beneficial to GM Holden. His previous work on global programs and systems integration [is] very appropriate for Holden's future."

Gubbey, who barely arrived in time for the launch of the VE Ute, said: "Whilst I’m obviously excited about the new challenge in Russia, I feel a genuine sadness to be moving on during this dynamic time for GM Holden.

"Being a real product guy, I’m sure that Mark will be a great asset in a company, and a country, that truly loves its cars."

In weighing up the pros and cons of staying with Holden or accepting the role in Russia, Gubbey said: "It's not an 'either/or'...it's a very unusual situation for GM to make a decision to want to move a senior executive after a short space of time in the role".

"I'm not being sent to the Russian front...With Russia being an emerging market, the experience I have got with China working with the joint ventures, working with the relationships and being in an emerging market is probably -- even in a corporation as large as GM -- a fairly unique one.

"Personally, I've gotta say, I'm going to be quite sad to not be able to stay here in Australia. I've been accepted into the team here very quickly. I've found it a very exciting place to work. I think we're doing a lot of things to move Holden forward. So on that side, it's quite disappointing. But on the other side, it's quite an exciting opportunity out there in a growth market and obviously one where I can support the corporation.

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