GM Confirms Batey Will Be New Global Chevy Boss

General Motors Co. has promoted its U.S. sales chief Alan Batey to the newly created post of senior vice president for the Chevrolet brand worldwide. He will report to CEO Dan Akerson and join the company's powerful Executive Operations Committee.

Batey will retain his current duties as head of American sales, marketing and service for Buick, Chevrolet and GMC. In that role, he will continue to report to Mark Reuss, president of GM North America.

Cadillac staff reports to Bob Ferguson, who was named global executive for that marque in October.

Akerson has designated Cadillac and Chevrolet as the company's global brands. Chevy sold 4.9 million vehicles worldwide in 2012, accounting for nearly three-quarters of GM's U.S. sales and slightly more than half its global volume. The make is sold in more than 140 countries, and nearly two-thirds of its sales last year took place outside the U.S.

Batey joined the company in 1979 as a mechanical engineering apprentice for the company's Vauxhall brand in the U.K. He has since held senior GM management jobs in Germany, Netherlands, the Middle East, South Korea, Switzerland and the U.K.

Batey was chairman and managing director of the company's Holden unit in Australia from mid-2009 until he was tapped to head Chevy's U.S. sales and service in 2010. GM put him in charge of domestic sales for all its brands in June 2012. The following month, Batey added interim duties as chief marketing officer after the ouster of Joel Ewanick.