GM’s marketing chief retires

By Neil Dowling on 20th March 2023 Personnel Articles General Motors, GM, Retirement, Wahl

GENERAL Motors’ global chief marketing officer Deborah Wahl has announced she will retire from the car-maker at the end of this month.

Ms Wahl (60) has been in the position since being promoted from Cadillac in September 2019. She joined GM in March 2018 as chief marketing officer of Cadillac.

At Cadillac she was tasked with “redefining Cadillac’s reputation and repositioning it for the future,” CEO Mary Barra said in a company memo at the time.

“By aligning marketing across GM under Deborah’s leadership, we will build stronger brands while ensuring more effective, efficient and agile customer engagement,” Ms Barra wrote.

Ms Wahl had experience as chief marketing officer at McDonald’s USA and the PulteGroup residential home construction company before going to Cadillac.

But her experience in the automotive industry was vast, having held marketing roles at Chrysler, Lexus, Toyota, Lincoln-Mercury, Mazda, and Ford of Brazil.

In her role at GM, she helped the conversation about transitioning the company from producing internal combustion engine vehicles to electric vehicles.

GM plans to bring 30 new EVs to market and have an all-electric line-up by 2035.
Ms Wahl has been named to the Automotive News 100 Leading Women in the North American Auto Industry list in 2000, 2005 and 2020.

GM said in a statement that: “We appreciate Deborah’s contributions since joining GM in 2018 and wish her well in her next chapter. We will conduct an external search for a new Global Chief Marketing Officer.”

Past Cadillac national dealer council chairman and dealer principal of Frank Kent Motor Company in Texas, Will Churchill, said in an interview that Ms Wahl’s departure is “going to be a void that’s going to be tough to fill.”

He said she played a significant role in advancing Cadillac’s brand image, including by crafting a marketing tone that feels more forward from a luxury perspective and by building a strong team.

“We’re higher up on the consideration scale, and a couple things play into that – the quality of product and the desirability of the product, and also the marketing,” he said.

“You can’t do one without the other. It takes a team effort on all the fronts.”