A 37-year GM lifer, Tsien has experience in engineering, planning and management, globally and locally.
GM China President Bob Socia, 59, today announced he would retire on 1 January 2014 after nearly four decades at the General Motors. Matthew Tsien, vice president of Planning and Program Management for GM China and GM Consolidated International Operations and Strategic Alliances for China, is the new president.
The move comes as GM China is facing a serious challenge to its long held sales leadership in the communist country from Volkswagen Group. GM was apparently caught napping and did not anticipate shifts in the market to small trucks and SUVs.
China is the Volkswagen Group’s and GM’s largest sales market. In 2012, VW Group delivered more than 2.81 million vehicles to customers in the country. In the first eight months of this year, VW claims that deliveries rose by 18% compared with the comparable prior-year period to more than 2 million vehicles. This is a close second to General Motors the long-time market leader at more than 2.2 million units. Both companies are on track to deliver 3 million or more vehicles during 2013, a record for both.
Socia began his career with GM in 1975 in the Cadillac Division in Detroit and held positions in North America, Brazil, Europe and South Africa in addition to China.
A 37-year veteran of GM, Tsien has experience in engineering, planning and management, both globally and locally. He also has experience leading a joint venture in China as executive vice president of the SAIC-GM-Wuling operations. Tsien helped negotiate the early joint ventures with SAIC, including Shanghai GM and the Pan Asia Technical Automotive Center or PATAC.
Tsien, 53, began his career at Delco Electronics in 1976 in electrical engineering as a cooperative student. Between 1995 and 2000, he worked in Germany, Australia and China in technical, program management and planning roles. He was appointed executive director of vehicle systems for GM North America Product Development in 2001 and later executive director of Global Technology Engineering. He was executive vice president of SAIC-GM-Wuling from 2009 to 2012. In his current role, held since January 2012, he oversees GM’s product planning and the growth of its product lineup across the region.
Tsien received a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the General Motors Institute (now Kettering University) in 1981, a master’s degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University in 1982 and a master’s degree in management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1993. Tsien’s successor will be announced later.
“We appreciate Bob’s 38 years of dedicated service and his significant contributions to GM in all of our regions,” said Dan Akerson, chairman and CEO of General Motors. “When Bob was appointed president of our largest market, our plan was for him to help prepare his successor. Matt is now ready to step into the role and we wish Bob the best in his retirement.”
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