Holden gets new Managing Director
January 10, 2008 by Karl Peskett
In one of the shortest tenures in Holden’s history, Chris Gubbey has been replaced as GM Holden’s Chairman, and Managing Director.
Nothing untoward here, as Gubbey has been appointed GME Vice President and Managing Director, GM Russia and Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Stepping into the new role is 44-year-old Mark L. Reuss, Executive Director of Global Vehicle Systems and Integration. Reuss (above) has been named GM Asia Pacific vice president, and Chairman and Managing Director of GM Holden.
Nick Reilly, GM Group Vice President and President of GM Asia Pacific, had this to say:
“This is a fairly unusual move for GM. As a general rule, GM doesn’t move executives after such a short time, especially in such an important market as Australia, but Chris’ unique expertise in working within partnerships and in developing countries made him the ideal candidate to grow GM’s business in Russia at this critical time. Mark is the ideal replacement for Chris. His extensive leadership experience, as well as his product engineering and manufacturing knowledge, will be hugely beneficial to GM Holden. His previous work on global programs and systems integration are very appropriate for Holden’s future.”
Mr Reuss’s 25 year stint with GM has seen him responsible for GM’s production studios, Executive Director, Architecture Engineering and GM Performance Division, and Executive Director, North American Vehicle Systems and Architecture.
He has a Bachelor of Engineering degree in mechanical engineering from Vanderbilt University in 1986, and Masters in Business Administration from Duke University in 1990. He is a certified Industry Pool test driver on the North Course of the famed Nurburgring and has earned his license for Grand American Road Racing.
Mark Reuss begins his role at Holden from 1st Feb 2008.
Print it: 
That’s great news for Holden.
This current guy wasn’t doing GMH any favours at all.
I hope this new manager can fix GM Holden Daewoo billion dollar problems, the (GM titanic) big ship is sinking real fast, and sooner or later should hit bottom, the whole company is so tarnished, will or can they gain back some respect as they lost me years ago and made it even worse when Holden included Daewoo crap in the line up….
Jeez that was quick, he only replaced Mooney in August. In that time the line up didnt change much, hope the new guy brings Vauxhalls back.
Sounds like the dance of the desperates. Why would you haul a guy out of such an important slot after only five months? Do they have a long-term strategy?
was the response to the daewoos here perhaps the reason for this? and to bring someone to try and restore some pride and respected vehicles?
if so its good that holden has evaluated the response to daewoos and may actually listen to the consumers.
it may be cheaper for them but if they arent getting the turnover they forecast then it was a pointless exercise
Good! It might stop holden making daewoo’s or make them alot better!
Whats this? Holden hires another American?
Looks like they are shifting the seats on the TITANIC.
Duck,
Holden doesn’t make Daewoos, they just sell them, and Daewoo even fit the Holden badges for them.
Elitist,
Holden doesn’t “hire” any of them. GM USA appoints them!
With an engineering background hopefully he will take a dim view of the current Daewoo’s on offer and do something about it.
Why did they have to change the commy picture to this……….yuk!!!!!!!!!!!
Why can’t the GM of Holden be an Australian. I mean Who else knows what Australians wants in a car better than an Australian.. For example: I’m sure if an Aussie was in the top job the first thing s/he’d do is drop the Daewoo
They know what a car needs to look like and how well it needs to be built inorder to survive our harsh rugged environment.
It seems we are good enough to help design build cars for the rest of the world but as yet we are unable to run our local car manufacturing company.. which seems a bit weird
I worked with Mark many years ago in Flint. His dad was number 2 in GM. I’m sure this is a stepping stone to something bigger.