The top technology staff at General Motors.Robert A. Lutz Jr., Chairman, GM North America, Vice Chair, Product Development
This guru of new car pizzazz has worked for all three major U.S. automakers. Credit him with the rollout of that fab family gangster-mobile, Chrysler's PT Cruiser. At GM, he's pushing a convertible pickup truck, the SSR.
Ralph Szygenda, Chief Information Officer, Group Vice President
He's GM's first CIO. With former subsidiary EDS out of the way, Szygenda began to slash the number of systems and apps GM is using. His way of fixing everything: do it electronically. His nickname: "Ralph.com."
Kirk Gutmann, Global Development Product Information Officer
He was vice president of an engineering group for International Harvester. So now he's plowing new ground: letting suppliers into GM's information systems to help develop cars faster.
Jay Wetzel, Vice President and General Manager (retired), Technical Centers
Who says "old" means "behind the times"? The 37-year vet was pushing the idea of using math, not models, to develop new cars before Szygenda became CIO.
Nick Andreou, Engineering Group Manager, Collaborative Strategy and Processes
Call him the progenitor of the SimFactory. Andreou says computer techniques could help GM plan out its manufacturing processes, too. Now, virtual reality concepts are being deployed throughout GM factories.
Terry Kline, CIO, North American Vehicle Operations, Vehicle Engineering Center
His network operations center oversees 350 million terabytes of data and a network that keeps engineering humming around the globe. If the fiber goes down, this is the man you're gonna call.
