In two separate announcements Thursday, General Motors announced that a pair of its top executives are leaving the company.
GM’s president of North America Alan Batey and global manufacturing head Alicia Boler Davis, both of whom directly report to chairman and CEO Mary Barra, will step down from their roles, effective April 1.
The company stated that Boler Davis, who has been on Coins2Day’s top 10 list of most powerful women in the automotive industry, decided to leave GM after 25 years “to pursue other opportunities,” specifically, as was first reported by the Wall Street Journal, Amazon.
Earlier this month, Amazon significantly contributed to funding rounds for two different car startups: Aurora, a self-driving car company raised $530 million in Series B investments, and electric pickup truck developer Rivian, which raised $700 million. GM was also reportedly interested in investing in Michigan-based Rivian.
According to a release, Batey “elected to retire after 40 years with the company” and will stay on through March to advise his replacement, current GM international business head Barry Engle. Engle worked at competitor Ford for 13 years before coming to GM in 2015, the year after Batey began his role as president.
GM said that Boler Davis, on the other hand, “will begin the transition immediately.” She will be replaced by Gerald Johnson, who is currently vice president of North American Manufacturing and Labor Relations.
According to Automotive News, a company spokesperson said that this corporate shakeup has nothing to do with the Detroit automaker’s recently announced plans to reduce its workforce by 15%—a quarter of which will be made up of executive leadership. Nearly 15,000 employees might be laid off, and 50,000 employees were offered a buyout in October.
GM said that its restructuring—cutting jobs, factories, and six car models (including the hybrid Chevy Volt)—will save the company approximately $6 billion by 2020, a projection that caused the automaker’s stock to soar after its announcement.
