Simcoe heads Stateside

THE leading Australian designer Mike Simcoe has been handed the task of improving the looks of the General Motors car family in North America.
Mr Simcoe takes up the three-year position of Executive Director Design, Body Frame Integral Architectures at GM’s Warren design headquarters, near Detroit in Michigan in late September.
In his new role he will be in charge of all car and car-based exterior design such as cross-overs developed by GM's North American subsidiaries.
That lot includes Buick, Chevrolet, Pontiac and Saturn, as well as the increasingly global luxury brand Cadillac.
Mr Simcoe will also have charge over the exterior design adaptation of GM monocoque vehicles that are developed outside North America and sold there or overseas under one of the domestic nameplates.
Mr Simcoe succeeds Bryan Nesbitt, who has moved to Opel in Europe to replace Martin Smith, who has left for Ford. The rotation is a key indicator of GM global product czar Bob Lutz's determination to globalise the company's design philosophy.
It also demonstrates how far the GM world has changed. It wasn't that long ago that Americans like the late Joe Schemansky and his successor Leo Pruneau were being sent out to Holden to run its design department.
Mr Lutz has placed Mr Simcoe in a crucial job. GM, like Ford and Chrysler Group, is seeking to reclaim ground lost in the car market to the Japanese, who in turn are now eating into the big three’s domestic truck volume.
While a gifted designer in his own right, Mr Simcoe is also regarded as a strong leader, organiser and motivator. That’s important in his new role, where he will be responsible for 1500 staff. Currently, around 140 GM employees report to him.
The first design updates he will influence are probably less than three years away, while it will be closer to five years before all-new products bearing his stamp will be unveiled.
Mr Simcoe said his priorities would be to ensure car designs emerging from Warren were “world class and best practice”, with a particular emphasis on improving packaging and perceived quality.
"There is nothing specific about American cars or trucks that I don’t like other than they probably need to be a bit more focused,” the 46-year old said. "They need to be quite specific, the design needs to suit the brand which some doesn’t and needs to get away from the “me too” that they have been into. In fact rather than being leaders, they are being led in some cases.”
Mr Simcoe will be in-line with four other executive directors reporting directly to world design chief Ed Welburn. The other EDs are responsible for body on frame; interiors; advanced and engineering.
It is the second time Mr Simcoe has been offered this job by Mr Lutz. The first time, two years ago, Mr Simcoe was Holden design director and wanted to see through the development of the new generation VE Commodore family, which is based on the all-new Zeta architecture.
In between Mr Simcoe took on the role of Executive Director GM Asia Pacific Design, a halfway house position that enabled him to leave his family based in Melbourne, although he spent two weeks in every month in Seoul at GM Daewoo, as well as overseeing a small design studio in China.
Reflecting GM’s priorities, Mr Simcoe’s replacement in the Asia-Pacific role, American Dave Lyon, will be based in Seoul.
There’s a certain irony to Mr Simcoe’s appointment, as the man who led the creation of the Commodore-based Monaro coupe, which has since been sold on to the Americans as a 21st century Pontiac GTO.
Although met with widespread acclaim for its performance, the car’s styling has been branded as underwhelming by the Americans, a concern reflected in slower than expected initial sales.
“I guess they (GM) are coming to Australia looking for someone out of the studios here because we have got car experience and if there’s something that’s not working well for them in North America,” explained Mr Simcoe. “Clearly they like what they see here and are chasing that expertise.
“I guess what they are chasing from me is good solid design related to getting their architectures right, getting their cars right and what we have been able to do here, and … to some degree tame engineering and make sure that the engineering guys and manufacturing for that matter can help deliver what essentially is what sells the vehicle, and that’s the appearance of it.”
Mr Simcoe’s appointment undoubtedly relates to the global ambitions GM has developed for Zeta, which will underpin Buick, Chevrolet and Pontiac future models.
Mr Simcoe previously spent two years working at Warren in the early 1990s, a period he has said was vital in his development of the record breaking VT Commodore’s exterior shape.

Originally posted by Darth Xed

So.... Nesbitt didn't last long in that position.

Originally posted by Doug Harden
Yup...sent him over to run Saab's design.