Hirings/Firings auto news

Ford of Europe's VP of manufacturing leaves after just 5 months

Mike Flewitt, Ford's vice president, manufacturing, Ford of Europe, has decided to "pursue other career interests" according to the company's press release. Jeff Wood, director of manufacturing for Ford's North America operations, will replace Flewitt beginning June 1.

Automotive News reports that the resignation comes after Ford of Europe reported a first-quarter, pre-tax loss of $149 million. The company has also cut working days at plants in Spain and days and production rates in Germany. Ford of Europe CEO Stephen Odell has previously said Ford's second-quarter production will fall by 65,000 vehicles from last year.

Flewitt began working at Ford in 1983 as an assembly plant trainee. Eventually he wound up at Rolls-Royce in 1995 as production director then moved to managing director at AutoNova AB Volvo in 1998 and operations group manager at TWR in 2000. In 2003, Flewitt returned to Ford of Europe as production quality director. Flewitt was installed in the VP position in January, 2012.

Automotive News says Flewitt has left Ford's European headquarters in Cologne, Germany for his UK birthplace.

Read Ford's press release after the jump for details and other personnel news from Ford.

Continue reading Ford of Europe's VP of manufacturing leaves after just 5 months

Report: Bentley/Bugatti chief Durheimer moving to Audi in management shake-up

Running a high-end automobile manufacturer like Bentley or Bugatti has got to be a dream job for most any business executive. And Wolfgang Dürheimer gets to run them both - but not for much longer, according to the latest reports coming in from trade publication Automotive News Europe.

According to ANE, the former Porsche development chief is set to move to Audi in a broad management restructure aimed at reducing the average age of Ingolstadt's seven-member management board. In his new capacity, Dürheimer (53) is tipped to replace Audi's current development chief, Michael Dick (60), who is expected to retire later this year.

Along with Dürheimer, Volkswagen marketing director Luca de Meo (44, formerly of Fiat) is expected to replace Audi sales chief Peter Schwartzenbauer (60), while Volkswagen purchasing manager Bernd Martens replaces his Audi counterpart Ulf Berkenhagen, who will take up the same role at the group's commercial vehicles division. Audi production chief Frank Dreves is also expected to leave his post, though no replacement was named in the report.

Of course with any game of musical chairs - or "Reise nach Jerusalem" as they call it in German for some reason - replacements will need to be found for the positions being left vacant. We'll be watching who is named head of Bentley and Bugatti, both roles that Dürheimer assumed from Dr. Franz-Josef Paefgen (pictured above at right), who last we heard was still in the group organizing its classic vehicles division.

Report: Over 100 take buyouts at Mazda USA ahead of layoffs

Mazda sales are up 22 percent this year, but the company's American operation is enduring acute pain. It is in the midst of a complete, five-month reorganization while trying to raise funds and shrink its workforce. In March, Mazda announced its intention to offer voluntary buyouts to its U.S. employees, after which it would assess the plan and then lay off other workers if needed. Of the firm's 701 local workers, 107 have accepted the voluntary buyout.

Having seen its North American year-over-year operating loss swell by more than 25 percent to $505 million from $397 million, every aspect of the company has come under review. Mazda has said it doesn't know if involuntary layoffs will be necessary yet, but CEO Takashi Yamanouchi does know this: "It's a must-win situation."

Report: GM to axe 100 R&D positions

General Motors has confirmed it will cut 100 research and development positions at its Warren, Michigan, Technical Center and will close another R&D lab in Bangalore, India.

The cuts are about a 25-percent reduction in the Warren facility and are part of a "global restructuring."

"These moves will enable the organization to better focus on commercializing customer-focused innovation in a more efficient and cost effective manner," GM spokesman Dan Flores tells The Detroit News.

If they aren't offered new positions, affected workers will have 30 days to apply for other posts within GM before the layoffs commence in early June.

Report: Could Mary Barra be GM's first female CEO?

Barra, 50, currently serves as GM's global product development chief, commanding a $15 billion operation. She first joined GM in 1980 and has served in a variety of capacities since then, including vice president in charge of global human resources. Even with his comments on Barra, Akerson stressed that at the end of the day, it's the GM board's job to pick his successor.

And what of the U.S. Treasury? Technically, the government owns a little more than a quarter of GM stock, but Akerson said the decision remains entirely in the hands of the company's decision makers. Other candidates for the position are said to include Mark Reuss, GM's North American operations boss and Steve Girsky, vice chairman.

Report: GM's Akerson thinks successor should come from within; "won't back off" criticism of Lincoln

There has been a lot of discussion from industry analysts about who will replace Ford CEO Alan Mulally, but he's not the only CEO of a major American automaker that will eventually need a successor.

Dan Akerson, CEO of General Motors since shortly after its emergence from bankruptcy in 2009, told Automotive News in an interview that he hopes his successor comes from within the automaker's ranks, as opposed to bringing in an outsider. Candidates are said to include GM Vice Chairman Steve Girsky, North American head Mark Reuss and global product leader Mary Barra.

Interestingly, Akerson himself was imported from a private equity firm called The Carlysle Group, and he has indeed had to learn how the auto industry operates, as he told AN:

"This is the funniest industry. Most industries people are straight up with it. Here everybody slaps everybody on the back, you just got to make sure they don't have a knife with it."

If a rumored billion-dollar investment and a slew of heavily updated models is equivalent to "holy water," we'd say Ford must agree with Akerson's assessment.

Official: Audi Sport scoops up ex-Peugeot driver Marc Gen'e for reserve role

Easily among the most talented of these drivers is Marc Gené, the driver who helped Peugeot clinch the checkered flag at La Sarthe in 2009. A longtime factory test driver for Ferrari (and one time grand prix driver for Minardi and Willaims), Gené has a wealth of experience that couldn't very well be left untapped. So it should come as little surprise that Audi has scooped him up.

Although the German automaker already has a full roster of pilots - proven race winners, no less - at its disposal, it has found room for Gené as a reserve driver. In this capacity Gené will be filling in for an uninjured Timo Bernhard to drive the #3 Audi R18 Ultra together with French drivers Romain Dumas and Loïc Duval at Spa-Francorchamps in just a couple of weeks, and will undoubtedly be on hand to jump into the cockpit at Le Mans in June should duty call.

Continue reading Audi Sport scoops up ex-Peugeot driver Marc Gen'e for reserve role

Report: Chevy's new ad agency Commonwealth picks downtown Detroit as home [w/video]

As we've reported in the past, one major issue confronting the U.S. auto industry is its ability to recruit talent to live in Detroit, home of General Motors and spiritual birthplace of Chrysler and Ford. According to the Detroit Free Press, advertising cooperative Commonwealth, a joint venture between San Francisco-based Goodby, Silverstein & Partners and New York-based McCann Erickson Worldwide, isn't having the same problem.

Commonwealth plans to embed itself in the middle of Detroit with 280 workers mostly imported from such marketing powerhouse cities as New York and San Francisco. The firm has already begun moving into the Palms Building which also houses the popular Fillmore Detroit performance venue. Says Todd Grantham, associate partner and Goodby's managing director for Detroit:

"You just have to be the type that comes in here and knows, I can build something here. That's how we attract people. What we want is the people who come in here and go, 'Wow, this is a blank canvas. It's all around me and now I can do something.'"

Continue reading Chevy's new ad agency Commonwealth picks downtown Detroit as home [w/video]

Report: More layoffs at Fisker; Delaware plant is 'absolutely empty'

Last we heard, Fisker Automotive was still "committed" to building the recently revealed Atlantic sedan at the former General Motors plant in Delaware. A few years ago, Fisker announced that site would be the company's new domestic production home (the Fisker Karma extended-range plug-in hybrid is made by Valmet in Finland). Still, Fisker did say that any definitive statement on the Atlantic's production location would not come until the end of the summer.

So we were interested to read new reports from local media that show more signs that the Atlantic might not ever be built in Delaware. On Friday, Delaware Online reports, 12 more workers - including engineers and maintenance technicians - were laid off at the plant, leaving "only a small maintenance team" left there. One of those let go was Jeff Garland, who had been working on community affairs and business development efforts in Delaware. He said the plant is currently "absolutely empty." This is because Fisker has taken out the old GM equipment but has not yet installed the machines it would need to build the Atlantic. As Garland told Delaware Online, "I think what happened was the budget numbers are so tight right now and they're working so hard to preserve as much cash as they can that something had to give. We're not making a car in Wilmington right now, so given that situation it was an obvious place to make a cut."

Fisker spokesman Russell Datz said that the company has flexible plans and will hire people when "we ramp up the project again." Production of the Atlantic is being delayed, at least in part, because of issues with Fisker's Department of Energy loan. You can read more about that here.

In related news, some of the components that Fisker and Ford will use in hybrid and all-electric cars are now being made by Magna E-Car Systems in Michigan. The inverters Magna makes are used in the Karma and this new production does not in any way predict a shift of Atlantic production to Michigan.

Report: Trouble signs keep piling up for Suzuki

So is it time to start the Suzuki dead pool? Automotive News seems to think so. While the newspaper doesn't go as far as suggesting that Suzuki is not long for the American market, it has compiled a depressingly long list of signs that the company is on its last legs here.

Among the many signs that Suzuki is hurting, the most damning might be what's happening with its dealer body. The report says the brand dropped 32 stores last year, roughly 12 percent, and that it is down to 246 total dealerships in the States. But of those, 150 sell five or fewer cars per month. That would explain why Suzuki only sold 26,618 cars last year, according to AN.

Other signs of distress include sluggish sales so far this year, not exhibiting at the most recent Detroit and Los Angeles auto shows, cutting off their deal for J.D. Power customer satisfaction data, and a lack of marketing leadership or initiative, according to the report.

While Suzuki's product lineup is among the smallest and oldest in the industry, that seems to be the least of the brand's troubles. Heck, even we kind of like the Kizashi.