General Motors hires Google exec to run public affairs, communications

Lin-Hua Wu will join General Motors as senior vice president and chief communications officer, the automaker announced Thursday.

Wu comes to GM from Google, where she has been vice president of global communications and public affairs since 2021. Her appointment is effective Aug. 21. Wu will report to GM CEO Mary Barra.

Wu replaces Craig Buchholz, who left the automaker May 1, said GM spokesman Pat Morrissey.

Wu, 52, brings experience from corporate, agency and tech industry communications. Before Google, she worked at Dropbox file hosting service from 2016-21, including serving as chief communications officer, GM said in its news release. Prior to Dropbox, she was head of corporate communications for Square (now Block), the mobile payments company used by small businesses.

From 2013-15, Wu was a partner with the Brunswick Group, a critical issues advisory firm. She also served as managing director at Kekst and Company global communications firm, now owned by Publicis Groupe, from 2004-12. She began her career as an associate at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich and Rosati, a prominent Silicon Valley law firm in Palo Alto, California, according to the news release.

“Lin-Hua’s broad experience and background will help drive more effective internal and external communications around our EV transformation and accelerated growth strategy,” Barra said in the news release. “Her extensive technology and Silicon Valley experience is the perfect fit for communicating our story as a technology-driven company that enables a world with zero crashes, zero emissions and zero congestion.”

Wu earned both her bachelor’s degree in international relations and a law degree from Stanford University. She is a member of the Board of Trustees of Glide, a historic church in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco known for its civil rights activism and charity, and a board member of the nonprofit Stellar Development Foundation, GM said.

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