A traditional feature of media days preceding every major international motor show is a quick-fire series of new vehicle reveals that take place at the astonishing pace of about one every 15 minutes.
This was the scene at the opening media day at the Paris Motor Show last week.
At 2.30pm, it was the turn of Opel, the German subsidiary of US industry giant General Motors, which was to reveal a fifth-generation Corsa hatchback, later joined by another German model, Claudia Schiffer.
The famously leggy blonde’s presence on stage was enough to hold the media’s attention to the extent that most ignored the start of the next scheduled vehicle reveal across the way, the new Jaguar XE sedan. A super new model upstaged by a supermodel.
And while all this circus was going on, standing in the background watching proceedings was a farm boy from Waikato who is now one of the world’s most powerful motor industry personalities.
Dan Ammann was raised on a farm at Eureka, a dot of a place halfway between Hamilton and Morrisonsville. But he’s a long way from there now. This year he was appointed president of General Motors, a job that among other things puts him in charge of GMs regional operations throughout the world, global product planning, and the company’s finance operation called GM Financial.
At 42, he’s part of a young group of executives that also includes CEO Mary Barra and head of global product development Mark Reuss who are transforming GM from the unwieldy and loss-ridden operation of just a few years ago to the more agile and increasingly profitable corporation it is today.
Interestingly, and perhaps a telling illustration that it is enthusiastic young car people who are running GM these days, Ammann is also one of the organisation’s most skilled drivers. He’s one of a handful of certified GM test drivers at the famed Nurburgring in Germany.
Ammann is based at GM headquarters in Detroit and didn't need to be at Paris, but he'd flown across the Atlantic to support Opel boss Karl-Thomas Neumann as he introduced the new Corsa, which is a very important model for the German marque with 12 million of them sold so far.
Corsa is also spearheading an Opel offensive that over the next few years will see 27 new cars powered by 17 new engines launched. It’s all part of a strategy aimed at moving GM Europe back into profitability and positioning Opel as an increasingly important part of GM’s global operation.
So in that sense, it was important that Ammann was there. As president he’s one of the young faces of the new and more streamlined General Motors, which is rapidly moving from being a series of regional companies to a more globally integrated business.
A Bachelor of Management Studies from Waikato University, Ammann began a career in investment banking in New York when he was hired as an analyst and associate in the banking team at Credit Suisse First Boston.
He then joined fellow Wall St banking firm Morgan Stanley as head of industrial investment banking, a job that required him to be closely involved in advising then almost-bankrupt General Motors as it went through a massive restructuring.
In January 2010 fellow New Zealander Chris Liddell joined GM as chief financial officer, tasked with leading the company’s US$23 billion initial public offering, and one of the first things he did was hire Dan Ammann as vice-president and treasurer.
The following year Liddell left GM, and Ammann was appointed executive vice-president and CFO and led the transformation of the corporation’s finance operations. He also led a strategy to rebuild the organisation’s captive finance capability through the establishment of GM Financial.
And then, in January this year he was made president. It’s a position right at the top of a massive company, one that operates close to 400 facilities throughout the world, and which last year built close to 10 million vehicles.
"GM is a big company that has come a long way in recent years. My job is to help keep the machine running. And we'll do it, too – we are busy developing a portfolio that will bring customers the best of GM product from around the world."
That included New Zealand and Australia, he added.
"I don't think I've been home for about 10 years, so I need to get down there. People say I'm losing my Kiwi accent, but I'm sure I'd get it back again.
"Once a Kiwi always a Kiwi – and I still have to put up with an abundance of sheep jokes."
