General Motors’ software division has now seen the exit of three senior leaders within a month, as the automaker—under its newly appointed chief product officer—merges its various tech operations into a single unit.
Baris Cetinok, who served as senior vice president of software and services product management, will be departing the company on December 12, GM confirmed to TechCrunch. CNBC initially broke the news of his exit.
In the past month, Dave Richardson, senior vice president of software and services engineering, and Barak Turovsky, who joined as head of AI in March, have also left GM. Both Cetinok and Richardson became part of GM in 2023. All three brought extensive experience from leading tech firms such as Apple and Google.
These leadership changes follow GM’s decision several months ago to appoint Sterling Anderson to the newly established chief product officer role. Anderson’s responsibilities now span almost every department involved in vehicle development at GM.
Anderson, an autonomous vehicle industry expert who reports directly to GM President Mark Reuss, oversees teams in vehicle and manufacturing engineering, battery technology, and software and services product management. His position is designed to manage GM’s entire product lineup, covering hardware, software, services, and user experience.
These executive departures are part of a broader reorganization at GM aimed at breaking down internal barriers and improving the integration of software development and deployment across its vehicles. Rather than maintaining separate teams with overlapping duties, GM plans to unify hardware and software engineering, AI, and global product functions into a single organization, according to statements released about each executive’s exit.
As Anderson restructures the company, he is also recruiting new leaders. Cristian Mori, who has spent the last five years at Symbiotic, Rivian, and Boston Dynamics, has been brought on to lead robotics in a newly created position. While GM already has manufacturing engineers focused on automation and robotics, this is the first time the company will have a dedicated chief of robotics, reporting to Anderson.
In October, GM hired Behrad Toghi, formerly of Apple, to head its AI initiatives. The company also appointed Rashed Haq as vice president of autonomous vehicles. Haq previously led AI and robotics at Cruise, the self-driving car company that GM acquired and later closed down.
