General Motors Co. is appointing Marcos Purty vice president of global workplace safety starting June 1.
Purty, who’s returning to GM after he left for a short time to work at Amazon.com Inc., is replacing Jim Glynn, who will retire after more than 40 years at GM on Sept. 1.
Purty spent the first 25 years of his career with GM, beginning in 1994 at GM’s former Pontiac Assembly facility. He went to Amazon for 18 months to be the vice president of North America fulfillment for the online retailer’s robotics sortable operations. In his last assignment at GM, he was executive director of global manufacturing strategy and planning.
He will report to CEO Mary Barra and report indirectly to Gerald Johnson, executive vice president, global manufacturing and sustainability.
“Marcos’ global experience across our manufacturing operations, engineering and launch teams, as well as his external experience, position him well to continue the company’s safety transformation,” Barra said in a statement.
In his career, Glynn worked at eight GM plants, holding plant leadership roles at Flint Assembly, Flint Stamping and Grand Blanc Stamping. He was also executive director of global manufacturing engineering and program management and manufacturing manager for several U.S. plants and operations in Mexico and Canada.
Glynn also took on international assignments for GM. In 2016, he became vice president of GM International and China Manufacturing, where he had responsibility for plants in China, Africa, India, South Korea, Thailand, Vietnam and Australia.
“We thank Jim for his dedication, his credibility as a leader and his genuine passion for people to lead the change to create an enterprise-wide safety culture,” Barra said. “Our safety culture would not be what it is today if it were not for Jim’s experience and leadership, and for that we are forever grateful.”
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