Holy Crap! - Cadillac Names Johan de Nysschen new President
Only 2 years after being lured away from his post as Audi's US head to re-shape Nissan's Infiniti brand, Johan de Nysschen has been hired to lead GM's luxury brand. He will replace Bob Ferguson, who will return to his post at GM as their chief lobbyist. This is a win for Cadillac as the main criticism of Mr. Ferguson has been that he was not a 'product guy' and de Nysschen certainly is. In his departure from Infiniti, he cited a desire to move back to the United States from the Asian brand's Hong Kong headquarters. There is a very good chance that Cadillac will be a better fit and will take advantage of Mr de Nysschen's knowledge of the US market, buyer's desires, as well as positioning Cadillac more powerfully against the German rivals. The only question here at the CaddyEdge.com is whether this will see a shake-up of the naming scheme used at Cadillac similar to his push to move Infiniti to Q and QX names with the only differentiator being a number (seen as similar to the A, S, and Q naming at Audi). One thing is practically certain, we won't see a return to 'names' under this new head. We welcome Cadillac's win in getting this very strong leader and look forward to seeing how he will direct the brand.