General Motors has announced the retirement of Ed Welburn who is the first ever African American vice president of General Motors Global Design. After 44 years of serving the huge automaker providing cars worldwide, he has finally confirmed his departure.
Welburn, 65, will be leaving GM on July 1 and will be replaced by another veteran of GM Design Michael Simcoe who is also the VP of GM International Design starting on May 1, USA Today reports. The company has not yet revealed who will take over the vacant position that Simcoe will left.
Welburn has contributed a lot to GM with his genius ideas. He has been the leader of GM Design since 2003. During his leadership, the world's largest automaker was able to build 10 design centers in seven different countries namely U.S., Australia, Germany, Brazil, South Korea, China and India. He was able to lead 2,500 employees based from the said locations who worked together develop concept cars.
"GM Design is among the most respected and sought-after organizations in the industry because of Ed's leadership," GM chairman and CEO Mary Barra said about Welburn for his outstanding leadership. "He nurtured a creative, inclusive and customer-focused culture among our designers that have strengthened our global brands."
Being the first African-American designer hired at GM, Welburn said that he had a hard time and had faced an incredible amount of pressure from the people around. When accepting his Detroit Free Press Automotive Difference Maker Lifetime Achievement Award, the retiring VP shared some of his experiences in the business.
"When a designer creates a sketch, he or she signs their work, and that sketch is placed on display in front of everyone, and when you are the very first African-American hired to design cars for General Motors, everyone wants to see what you can do," Welburn stated as per Detroit Free Press. "Talk about pressure. I mean incredible pressure. I quickly realized there was no grace period, no quiet time, or anything, I was in the big leagues."
Though he will be officially leaving his office on July 1, he will still have engagements with GM as he will be working the architect at GM Technical Center in Michigan, The Verge reports. Car lovers can still have a taste of his genius ideas through the GM car products.
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