General Motors’ business reorganization efforts are taking shape in an unusual way, trickling down in the form of leadership changes from the top. GM’s restructuring of its tech teams has taken a noteworthy turn, with a third high-profile executive leaving the organization to make room for fresh blood. GM’s Senior Vice President of Software and Services Product Management, Baris Cetinok, is the latest senior leader to announce his exit from the organization.
The 2025 leadership changes at GM accompany the business’ larger downsizing efforts across its operations, but unlike the intentional cuts being made on the lower rungs, it’s unclear if these leadership exits are part of the company’s internal strategy. Extensive change at the top of an organization can cause disarray throughout the rest of the business, which means that GM will have to take a closer look at its tech reorganization efforts to plug the hole created by existing leaders.
GM is restructuring its tech teams with plans to revitalize the brand via AI, but the shift has also included the departure of some top executives. (Image: Freepik)
GM Continues Restructuring Across Its Leadership Teams as It Gears Up for Incoming Change
Baris Cetinok, GM’s Senior Vice President of Software and Services Product Management, is expected to leave the company on December 12, 2025, marking an end to his two-year tenure at the organization. Despite having previously described his role at GM as a “product person’s dream,” the executive is now on track to depart the company for greener pastures. He joins Dave Richardson, GM’s Senior Vice President of Software and Services Engineering, and Barak Turovsky, GM’s Head of Artificial Intelligence, in leaving the business as part of GM’s software restructuring exits.
The executive exits come only months after GM hired Sterling Anderson to don the title of a newly established Chief Product Officer position. “Sterling brings decades of leadership in automotive engineering and transformative software innovation to his new role and is the right leader to help GM continue leading now and into the future,” General Motors President Mark Reuss said during the announcement of Anderson’s appointment.
According to CNBC, the role has been designed to lead the combined forces of the company’s vehicle software engineering and global product units under one division. Anderson has previously worked on autonomous vehicle programs for the likes of Tesla and cofounded another automotive company, Aurora Innovation.
GM Invests in Multiple Software Hires in 2025
Layoffs and leadership exits aside, GM’s restructuring of its tech teams has also involved the appointment of a number of new team members to streamline its production. Cristian Mori has taken on the role of Head of Robotics. Behrad Toghi, a former Apple employee, has also joined GM as the AI Lead Vice President of Autonomous Vehicles. Rashed Haq has similarly adopted the role of Vice President of Autonomous Vehicles.
GM’s AI officer hire and other changes to its leadership reiterate the company’s focus on investing in self-driving technology and other enhanced features of road engineering, which serve as an additional reminder of the shift towards global AI adoption. The strategy at GM looks to be combining traditional automotive industry goals with a Silicon Valley strategy, which isn’t the easiest change to introduce to employees.
Considered together, this change in GM’s organizational structuring is likely the reason for tech leaders moving on to other organizations.
The Tech Reorganisation at GM Will Only Be Successful Once Employees Are on Board
Only recently, Amazon workers signed an open letter to their employer to ask the company to reconsider its fast-paced sprint towards AI. The global stage has employees expressing similar sentiments, highlighting their worry over a sudden but strategic pivot towards artificial intelligence. With such evident investments in building the future of the company on AI services, GM appears to have settled on an ambitious plan for its business that will require thorough changes to its operations.
For this strategy to be successful, employees will have to be brought on board to see the benefits of the shift. Employees always look to their leaders for guidance, seeing in them a representative of their trust in the organization. With abrupt changes to leadership, employees are left uncertain with regard to the stability of the business.
With three experienced GM tech leaders exiting the company’s workforce, change within other areas of the organization is inevitable. It is now up to GM to actively help employees come to terms with their new overseers and adapt to their leadership styles in order to make this non-traditional approach a successful one.
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