The writer, a Los Angeles freelancer and former Detroit News business reporter, writes a blog, Starkman Approved.
By Eric Starkman
Another cautionary tale about the fate of accomplished outsiders joining GM: CEO Mary Barra has promoted her San Francisco–based chief flack, Lin-Hua Wu, to run both marketing and PR—sidelining Norm de Greve, the industry-acclaimed chief marketing officer Barra lured from CVS with great fanfare just two years ago.
The executive reshuffling was disclosed in an internal memo on Wednesday, a copy of which Deadline Detroit obtained.
When the transition takes hold on November 3, Wu will continue reporting to Barra on PR and to President Mark Reuss for marketing. Wu previously posted that she joined GM two years ago “for the chance” to work with Barra, and six months into the job declared that “she is exactly the inspirational, visionary, authentic, and strong leader I thought she would be.”
Neither Wu’s LinkedIn profile nor GM’s press release announcing her appointment as chief communications officer two years ago made any mention of marketing experience. By contrast, GM’s release announcing de Greve’s hire emphasized that he’d been recognized by Fast Company as one of the Most Creative People in Business and by Business Insider as one of the Most Innovative CMOs in the World. He’s even got an Emmy Award to show for it.
Hardly a Promotion
De Greve has been given the title “chief growth officer,” but it’s hard to view that as a promotion—or even a lateral move. Whereas de Greve previously reported to Reuss, he now reports to Wu. Although de Greve is assigned to GM’s Tech Center in Warren, he commutes weekly from his home in New England.
“Lin convinced Mary that she knows more about brand marketing than Norm, and can make GM advertising relevant to young people, even though that demographic isn't the GM new car buyer," said one GM insider. “Lin’s lack of any experience in marketing is a testament to how completely tone-deaf Mary is.”
The chief marketing officer is one of the most consequential roles in any consumer-facing business, but especially in the automotive industry. Cars aren’t toothpaste or soft drinks. They’re high-priced, high-emotion purchases that rely on brand identity as much as engineering. A CMO’s job is to translate a company’s soul—and it’s debatable whether GM under Barra still has one—into something that resonates with people’s aspirations and material desires.
Lin-Hua Wu (LinkedIn photo)
Marketing is supposed to anticipate what customers want before they do; PR, particularly at GM under Barra’s leadership, is about damage control. The distinction between the two disciplines matters.
Putting a career flack in charge of marketing is like asking the company lawyer to write your love letters—technically competent, emotionally tone-deaf. When the person charged with shaping GM’s brand comes from the department built to spin bad news, it signals that Barra sees marketing not as a creative or strategic discipline but as an exercise in reputation laundering.
Ford, for all its manufacturing problems, appreciates the value of experienced marketing leadership. Its CMO, Lisa Materazzo, is a seasoned industry hand who cut her teeth at Toyota and Lexus, brands that understand how to build loyalty and mystique.
Under Materazzo’s watch, Ford’s marketing has shown flashes of cleverness and humanity—like its “Built for America” campaign that dovetailed with President Trump’s push to restore U.S. manufacturing, and a brilliant promotion featuring Detroit Lions rookie Isaac TeSlaa standing in front of the electric Lightning pickup the company comped him, wearing a t-shirt emblazoned “TeSlaa Drives a Ford.”
Detroit Lions Isaac TeSlaa (Ford photo)
Materazzo is a longtime Detroit-area native, as is Mark Truby, the company’s chief communications officer and a former Detroit News reporter. Underscoring the importance Ford places on marketing, Materazzo reports to CEO Jim Farley, while the marketing function at GM is overseen by Reuss.
Ford recently reaffirmed its commitment to the Detroit area, announcing plans to spend billions building a new headquarters campus and razing its iconic glass-tower headquarters in Dearborn. Company spokesman Said Deep told me Ford isn’t seeking any Michigan taxpayer grants or subsidies to remain in Detroit.
By contrast, Barra claims that GM’s headquarters will be in Dan Gilbert’s taxpayer-subsidized Hudson’s Detroit Tower, where GM will occupy all of four floors. It’s unclear where Barra’s primary office is, but CNBC has reported that Reuss’ office is on the second floor of the Tech Center, adjacent to the lobby.
Silicon Valley
With Wu now overseeing marketing and PR, at least five critical GM executive functions are being run out of the company’s fast-growing Mountain View office in Silicon Valley. In addition to Wu, Bay Area-based executives include Sterling Anderson (global product officer), Baris Cetinok (software and services product management), and David Richardson (senior software and services management).
Arden Hoffman
GM’s chief people officer, Arden Hoffman, works remotely from her ranch in Montana as well as Michigan and the Bay Area. Zach Kirkman, GM’s newly appointed vice president of strategy and corporate development who reports to Barra, is based in Austin.
The pattern is undeniable: accomplished executives who work for or join GM do so at their own peril.
J.P. Clausen, a former Tesla executive Barra recruited to oversee manufacturing and who was also based in the Bay Area, departed after a year, posting on LinkedIn that the move was best for his family. Dan Ammann, who scaled GM’s robotaxi Cruise subsidiary to a business once valued at $30 billion and was once seen as a viable candidate to lead the automaker, was fired by Barra after arguing that Cruise should operate independently of GM.
After repeatedly vowing that Cruise would generate $50 billion in annual revenues by 2030, Barra shuttered the business last year. Among other Cruise casualties were co-founder Kyle Vogt, a highly regarded Silicon Valley entrepreneur, and Gil West, who oversaw the successful integration of Delta and Northwest airlines and now is Hertz’s CEO.
Out the Door
Marissa West, a decades-long GM executive who previously oversaw the company’s Canadian operations, inexplicably left GM about eight months after being named president of North America. Gil Golan, named chief information officer, resigned one month after his appointment.
Wu joined GM two years ago after stints as chief communications officer at Google, Dropbox, and Square (now Block), and earlier at agencies specializing in PR and investor relations. She holds a law degree from Stanford and began her career as an associate at the high-powered Silicon Valley law firm Wilson Sonsini.
Wu’s ability to spin bad news—and now integrate that spin into GM’s marketing and advertising—will soon be tested like never before.
GM CEO Mary Barra and Gov. Newsom
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has publicly accused Barra of playing a leading role in efforts to overturn the state’s mandate to ban the sale of new gas-engine vehicles by 2035. That’s a damaging reputational hit, particularly since Barra has called EVs GM’s “north star,” and California remains America’s biggest EV market.
Barra’s EV vision has been a disaster. Adding insult to injury, three of GM’s most popular and affordable EVs—the Chevy Blazer, Equinox, and Cadillac Optiq—are built in Mexico, where GM is the country’s largest automaker. GM’s safety recalls are mounting, including the global recall of more than 850,000 trucks and SUVs with premium V8 engines that can fail even when practically new.
Litigation is increasingly a material GM risk. The company disclosed in a regulatory filing that dealing with legal issues requires an increasing amount of Barra’s time.
A federal judge in California just approved a $150 million settlement in GM’s engine-defect case, including a $57 million attorney-fee award the court called “extraordinary” but warranted. GM allegedly kept selling vehicles with known engine defects. Additional lawsuits over the recalled V8 engines also allege the company knowingly sold defective products.
Over at Disney
Barra also sits on the board of Disney, whose directors have been sued for allegedly violating fiduciary duties over fallout from ABC’s suspension of Jimmy Kimmel. It’s a lucrative board seat—Barra was paid $361,657 in cash last year, plus other benefits, for her wisdom.
“It’s never good to have an executive involved in a controversial issue outside of your own company,” corporate governance expert Charles Elson told Shifting Gears, a Substack newsletter published by veteran auto writer Phoebe Wall Howard. “The danger is it affects the public’s view of your employer. You’re over at Disney in the middle of this—how does that affect the perception of how you’re running your company?”
Barra’s actions don’t inspire confidence in her leadership. She recently dumped about 40 percent of her GM holdings after spending $25 billion on share buybacks over the past three years—an effort to prop up the company’s chronically underperforming stock.
Barra has received more than $300 million in compensation since assuming GM’s helm 11 years ago, most of it stock based. Her pay is roughly five times that of Toyota’s CEO, who runs a larger and far more profitable company. Unlike Barra, Toyota correctly cautioned that American consumers wouldn’t readily embrace EVs.
An Axios Harris poll ranked Toyota the fourth most reputable company in America, up eight spots from last year. GM ranked 44th, down four.
Contact Eric Starkman at eric@starkmanapproved. Anonymity assured.
