GM Establishes South American Unit

General Motors announced that it is expanding its South American operations by establishing a dedicated regional organization to meet the rising customer demand on the continent.GM South America will be headquartered in Sao Paulo, Brazil and will be headed by Jaime Ardilla, who currently holds the president and general manager position for GM Mercosur.

The executive is appointed president of GM South America and will report directly to GM Chairman and CEO Ed Whitacre.

GM South America, which currently has 29,000 employees, will cover GM’s current and manufacturing operations in Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela, as well as sales activities in those countries and Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay.

The company has product design and engineering capabilities that will allow it to continue developing local cars and trucks that complement GM’s global vehicle architectures.

The new development will leave the General Motors International Operations to focus on expanding markets in Asia, Australia & New Zealand, Russia and the CIS, the Middle East and Africa.

“The GM International Operations team is doing a great job expanding our global presence,” said Whitacre. “However, with the rapidly growing markets in Asia, the Middle East and Russia, we need the GMIO team focused exclusively on those countries that are critical to our growth.”

The new project implies a series of related moves, such as executives shuffling. Denise C. Johnson, vice president, Labor Relations, will fill in the president and managing director position of GM do Brazil, starting from July 1. Johnson will be succeeded as vice president by Catherine L. Clegg, currently GM North America manufacturing manager.