GM CFO Makes Reuters Correspondent Want To Throw Up
Former Wall Street banker turned GM CFO Dan Ammann put the fear of a higher being into Reuters’ Detroit correspondent Ben Klayman. To drive home the point that bean counters can be car guys too, Ammann raced his gray-metallic Corvette Z06 around GM’s Michigan test track – with a nauseated Klayman in the passenger’s seat.
“I almost threw up afterwards,” recounts Klayman. Klayman’s feature story about the CFO who wants it understood that he’s not one of the gray-suited “bean counters” who once dominated, and nearly destroyed, General Motors, is required reading.
And as long as he won’t throw up in the car, no harm done.
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
More by Bertel Schmitt
Comments
Join the conversation
They should get all GM executive above a certain rank high speed certified. Stick their butts in the car they're backing and have them drive the competition too. Yeah, some real world honesty for the corner office guys/gals. Does GM still have a parking garage where the executives cars are gassed, washed, repaired as needed?
Ammann could have gotten the same outcome of unstoppable nausea from Klaymann if he would have locked him in a 2013 Malibu for ten minutes. Wocka, wocka, wocka!
I would be more impressed if he had worked on his own car as well as driving it.
Did all you rock throwers notice the seats in the pic above aren't stock? Looks like Sparco race seats.