GM Names Global Chief Marketing Officer

General Motors Co. has promoted Deborah Wahl, previously head of marketing for the Cadillac brand, to be GM’s first global chief marketing officer since 2012.

Wahl (pictured) joined Cadillac nearly 18 months ago. She previously was chief marketing officer at McDonalds USA and Chrysler. She also held earlier marketing assignments at Lexus, Toyota, Lincoln-Mercy, Mazda and Ford of Brazil.

GM’s most recent global marketing chief was Joel Ewanick, who was fired in 2012 after 27 months on the job for committing Chevrolet to a costly sponsorship of the U.K.’s Manchester United soccer team. Much of the global marketing duties since then had been handled by Chevrolet CMO Tim Mahoney, who retired six months ago.

Wahl now reports to President of the Americas Barry Engle. The marketing heads of GM’s Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, GM Financial and OnStar units will co-report to her and the heads of their respective business operations.

GM also made several other changes in its marketing operations, Automotive News reports:

• Travis Hester, former president of GM Canada, is now global vice president of customer experience, a new position. He reports to Engle and GM President Mark Reuss.
• Scott Bell, currently vice president of sales, marketing and service for GM Canada, will replace Hester as president of that unit.
• Sandor Piszar, director of truck marketing at Chevrolet, will succeed Bell.
• Santiago Chamorro, vice president of global connected customer experience, will head a new group called Global Connected Services, being set up to handle GM’s subscription services.