GM designer Nesbitt to be named head of Cadillac


Automotive News
July 22, 2009 - 10:49 pm ET

DETROIT -– General Motors Co., continuing to shake up management since exiting bankruptcy two weeks ago, plans to name designer Bryan Nesbitt as chief of Cadillac.



The appointment is scheduled to be announced Thursday and takes effect August 1, said spokesman Terry Rhadigan.

Nesbitt, known for penning Chrysler's PT Cruiser, has spent eight years at GM, where he is currently in charge of North American design.

His move to Cadillac is in line with a strategy outlined by Vice Chairman Bob Lutz on July 10, when Lutz postponed his retirement to take a new role as chief of marketing and communications with oversight of design. Lutz, 77, said then that he would put design at the center of GM's advertising message.

Nesbitt will report to Lutz.

Rhadigan said interim Cadillac general managers Steve Hill and Steve Shannon will be reassigned and their new positions will be announced soon.

Nesbitt's new role was reported earlier by the autoextremist.com Web site.

He has been GM's vice president of North American design since June 2007. Before that he was executive director of design for GM Europe.

Nesbitt came to GM in 2001 from Chrysler, where he worked with Lutz and designed the PT Cruiser. He later crafted GM's version of the retro wagon, Chevrolet's HHR.

 

Interesting choice.

Putting a design guy at the head of a whole division/brand. It will be interesting to see what happens, (or doesn't) with Cadillac going forward. Since he's worked with Lutz in the past and has been responsible for some nice design efforts, some of GM's best in the past decade, I think he may be most certainly in tune with Lutz and whatever his plan is to continue reinvigorating GM product.

The divisions need strong personalities to be in charge to bring focus to and set the direction/tone for the product. I guess we'll see if he's strong enough to take charge of the division and run it the way it should be.

 

This is from Peter D:

GM. Publisher's Note (7/22, 3:45pm): Did somebody mention that it's not business as usual at the new GM Co.? Here's further evidence of it: Bryan Nesbitt - one of the key leaders at Global Design for GM - is moving to Cadillac to become the new General Manager, reporting directly to Bob Lutz, effective immediately. True to his word, "Maximum Bob" is bringing the design and product development aspects of the business within GM together to integrate the brand building power of their product and marketing initiatives in order to get closer to the customer. Since joining GM in April of 2001, Nesbitt and his teams were responsible for such design hits as the Buick Enclave, Pontiac Solstice, Saturn Aura and Chevrolet Malibu. While assigned to GME Design in Europe, Nesbitt also led the development of the Saab Aero X and 9-X concepts, the Opel Meriva and GTC concepts, as well as the 2009 European Car of the Year – the Opel Insignia. The news of Nesbitt’s new assignment was shared with Cadillac dealers this afternoon by Mark LaNeve at a previously scheduled business meeting in downtown Detroit. An inspired choice. - PMD,

 

A design guy in charge of a division over a finance or marketing guy?

Intresting.

This is like the old, old days where engineers designers ran car companies.

Today's stockholders demand MBA, Ivy league marketing people running divisions over people who know, breath, design, or engineer cars. Instead of gut & instinct, they demand exhaustive reports, meeetings, and studies. With the government simply wanting it's money back instead of investment firms and stockholders demanding not just the value of their money, but their initial money and then some, perhaps GM has breathing room to get real car people in key places.

It's refreshing that a guy from design is running a car division that is going to need to depend on top tier styling to compete, as Cadillac will.

But it also shows that alot of GM's marketing is being removed from the divisional level, and is being even more centralized.

Again, intresting.

 

Now that is a move in the right direction. Nesbitt is very talented and I think he'll have a big impact heading Cadillac. He's been apart of nearly every design hit that GM's had over the past 5 years.

 

This is an impressive resume... I am with guionM though, I am not sure this makes the guy able to run a division. Hopefully he does well.

 

No denying that this is a bold move...

 

The guy designed a bunch of retro and round corner cars.
In charge of buick ok but in charge of cadillac with it's sharp angles and corners. Not so sure.

 

I was thinking the same... but... I think he is aware of this... and I really don't think he is going to turn Cadillac into round cars...

 

I think it's a great move. I trust the instincts of a car designer over a bean counter or a marketing mukaluk any day. I am hopeful for a lot of innovative, exciting, well designed products to come out of GM from this.

 

Designers can be pretty eccentric...so this could get interesting.

 

Each of his designs expressed a design language appropriate to its division. I think it is going to be a good move for GM.

Now where's my CTS-V Coupe???

 

The great thing about having a designer leading things is that they know what aspects can be compromised design-wise and which are necessary to retain the overall goal of what they are trying to convey in a design. As I'm sure other designers/artists can agree on is that when we design something and everyone loves it, reality starts to set in with project management and they start to change things without our discretion. This leads to something that only has a general resemblance to what you were trying to achieve and in the end is a watered down version of the original which makes it not nearly as appealing.

 

Nesbitt seems like a good guy. I had several conversations with him when he first came to GM from Chrysler. Most of those conversations had to do with Camaros and such.

I do have some concerns, since he's kind of a pick out of left field, but I'm willing to give him a chance and see what sort of impact he brings. Like someone else said, I'd rather have him over some Ivy League finance egghead. *Plus* he has an understanding of Europe, if/when Cadillac ever wants to seriously re-engage there.