GM Marketing Chief Ousted

The Marketing Chief for the General Motors Corporation, Joel Ewanick, has recently been ousted by the corporation. Ewanick was originally chosen as the marketing chief because General Motors believe that he would have the ability to change their image. However, after a deal that was negotiated by Ewanick with the Manchester United soccer team, GM leaders believed that the negotiation failed to mention some specific details. The General Motors Corporation made an agreement to pay around $39 million each year for the next seven years in exchange for the Chevrolet name to be displayed on team players jerseys. The amount being paid by General Motors would be a whopping 25 percent higher than the other sponsor, Aon Corporation, is paying to have their logo displayed on the team players jerseys. The terms of the agreement had not yet been disclosed.

It is because of this that the GM leaders decided to ask Ewanick to resign, believing that he did not make details of the contract clear to senior management. It is because of Ewanick and his lack of details in the contract that made it difficult for the leaders of GM to know how much the deal typically would have cost them. Even though leaders were not aware of the cost, they still are planning to keep the agreement intact, even though the original agreement has since been altered from the one that was originally created by Ewanick. An analyst at Morgan Stanley, Adam Jonas, recently said that the departure of Ewanick may make things a bit more challenging for GM.

With Ewanick departing from the General Motors Corporation, the CEO of GM, Dan Akerson, is now going to be dealing with much more pressure than before. The corporation is currently dealing with losses that took place in Europe over the past decade. While the spokesperson for GM, Tom Henderson, would not speak about the sponsorship and the deal that was made, he did comment about Ewanick, stating that he did not meet the original expectations that were expected of him as an employee for the corporation which is the reason  behind him being asked to resign. Ewanick started working for GM just two years ago, back in 2010. Prior to working for General Motor, he was working with the Hyundai Motor Corporation as the vice president of marketing for sales in the United States. Ewanick was responsible for the Hyundai Assurance program, a program that many people are familiar with. While he has done well before, General Motors simply did not feel that he was the right fit for the position under the circumstances.