GM Names Annette Clayton President Of Saturn Corporation

DETROIT -- General Motors Corp. today announced the appointment of Annette K. Clayton as president of Saturn Corp., effective immediately. Clayton has been a leader in implementing GM's global manufacturing system in North America since April 2000. She replaces Cynthia M. Trudell, who recently resigned to accept a position with the Sea Ray Group, a unit of Brunswick Corp.

In her new position, Clayton will be responsible for Saturn's Spring Hill, Tenn., and Wilmington, Del., plant operations, overseeing continued production improvements and the growth of the Saturn product portfolio. She will help lead the Saturn-UAW partnership and work closely with Saturn-dedicated engineering and marketing teams from GM.

Jill Lajdziak, vice president of Saturn sales, service and marketing, will maintain responsibility for Saturn's separate field organization, retail network and all marketing initiatives. She will continue to report to Bill Lovejoy, group vice president of GM North America vehicle sales, service and marketing, to enable synergies with GM's marketing centers of expertise.

"Annette Clayton was selected because of her extensive background in engineering, manufacturing and management," said Gary L. Cowger, GM group vice president of manufacturing and labor relations. "Saturn is growing aggressively. The company will bring four new products to market over the next four years, and Annette's proven success with three of GM's recent launches will be valuable."

Clayton will be based in Spring Hill and will report to Guy Briggs, GM vice president and general manager of GM vehicle manufacturing. Briggs was a founding member of Saturn Corp., and currently oversees all of GM's assembly operations.

Clayton joined GM as a co-op student with the Moraine, Ohio, assembly plant in 1983. She held various production, engineering and maintenance assignments at the plant until 1992, when she became its assistant superintendent of production. In 1994, she was promoted to area manager of body operations at Fort Wayne, Ind., and in 1995 she was named area manager of general assembly. She was appointed assistant plant manager at Fort Wayne in 1997, and named plant manager at GM's Oshawa, Ontario, truck assembly plant in 1999.

She played an integral role in the launch of the original and redesigned midsize Chevrolet Blazer, GMC Jimmy and Oldsmobile Bravada sport utility vehicles, as well as the Chevrolet and GMC full-size pickup trucks.

Clayton, 37, earned a bachelor's degree in general engineering from Wright State University in 1986, and a master's degree in engineering management from the University of Dayton in 1992. She completed the London Business School Executive Program in 1997.

General Motors , the world's largest vehicle manufacturer, designs, builds and markets cars and trucks worldwide. The company also has extensive auto financing and mortgage operations. In 2000, GM earned $5 billion on sales of $183.3 billion. It employs about 386,000 people globally.

More information on GM and Saturn can be found at www.gm.com and www.saturn.com. A photo of Clayton is available on the GM media site, media.gm.com.