Williams Appointed to Leadership Post at GM de Mexico

Annette Clayton to Succeed Kevin Williams as GMNA Vice President of Quality

DETROIT - Kevin Williams has been appointed assistant managing director and manufacturing manager of GM de Mexico, and Annette Clayton will succeed Williams as GM North America vice president of quality, GM Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner announced today.

Williams, 43, will report to Arturo Elias, managing director of GM de Mexico. Clayton, 41, will report to Wagoner, who oversees GM North America. She currently is a GM manufacturing manager for eight assembly plants and president of Saturn Corp. The appointments are effective June 1.

In his new role, Williams will work closely with Elias in day-to-day operational activities and will be responsible for running GM's manufacturing plants in Mexico.

"Kevin has been instrumental in bringing engineering, purchasing and manufacturing together in making progress toward our quality goals," Wagoner said. "He has helped GM make significant inroads, particularly at Cadillac and Buick, which today are among the leaders in initial quality as measured by J. D. Power & Associates in North America."

Williams joined GM in 1983 as a reliability analyst at Buick in Flint, Mich. In 1989, he was named general supervisor of production at the Lansing Craft Centre in Lansing, Mich., and in 1991 he was appointed program readiness manager for GM's EV1 electric car program.

In 1993, Williams was named reliability engineer at the former North America Truck Group, and two years later he became assistant production superintendent at the Janesville assembly plant in Wisconsin. In 1996, he was named area manager of general assembly. In 1997, Williams was executive director of supplier quality for GM Europe, and in 2000 he returned to the United States as global executive director of supplier quality, development and supplier diversity, before he was named to his current post in 2003.

He has a bachelor of science degree in management from Tennessee State University and an MBA from Central Michigan University.

Wagoner said Clayton also brings extensive experience in manufacturing to the company's top quality post.

"Quality remains one of our key areas of focus," he said. "We are intensifying our efforts in all aspects of quality -- initial, long-term and perceptual. Annette has the right experiences and skills to help us reach those goals."

Clayton joined GM as a co-op student at the Moraine, Ohio, assembly plant in 1983. She held several engineering and manufacturing posts there and at Fort Wayne, Ind., before she was named assistant plant manager at Fort Wayne in 1997 and plant manager at the Oshawa truck assembly plant for GM of Canada in 1999. In 2000, she took over responsibility for the quality process within GM's Global Manufacturing System.

She became president of Saturn Corp. in 2001 and added her other current responsibility as a GM manufacturing manager in 2002. In that capacity, Clayton has had oversight of eight assembly plants, including the Chevrolet Corvette plant in Bowling Green, Ky., the Shreveport, La., plant that is building the new Hummer H3, and the Wilmington, Del., plant that is preparing to assemble the new Pontiac Solstice roadster.

She earned a bachelor's degree in general engineering from Wright State University, a master's degree in engineering management from the University of Dayton, and she completed the London Business School executive program in 1997.

A replacement for Clayton will be announced later.