General Motors names former Tesla exec Jens Peter Clausen to lead manufacturing

General Motors (GM) announced the retirement of its long-serving executive vice president of Global Manufacturing and Sustainability, Gerald Johnson. Replacing him as the new executive vice president is Jens Peter Clausen, whom GM calls “an industrial leader with vast expertise in global manufacturing, product engineering and scaling operations.” GM also announced that Mike Abbott, executive vice president of Software and Services, will be stepping down due to health reasons. JP Clausen “brings a strong track record of manufacturing, innovation, and operational excellence” having “spearheaded the rapid scaling of electric vehicle propulsion systems at Tesla’s Gigafactory 1 and played a crucial role in making EVs more accessible,” according to GM. “He also led a financial turnaround at LEGO by simplifying the product and component portfolio, and at Google Data Centers, as vice president of Engineering, he drove groundbreaking technological innovation, product development, and process optimization,” GM stated.