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Byline: Drew Winter
Instead, other names were batted about in the media, including insiders such as Martin Smith, who runs Adam Opel AG design; and Dave Rand, designer in charge of interiors, quality and brand character; as well as some relatively recent recruits, such as Bryan Nesbitt, who penned Chrysler Group’s PT Cruiser and now is in charge of design for unibody vehicles; and former Renault SA designer Anne Asensio, in charge of advanced vehicles.
“Yeah, it’s frightening, it’s exciting, it’s somewhat emotional…but it is absolutely fantastic!” Welburn adds with a grin.
In between is a long list of cars and trucks he designed or had a hand in, from sexy one-offs such as the 1987 Oldsmobile Aerotech, 1995 Oldsmobile Antares and 2002 AUTOnomy fuel cell vehicle; plus a long succession of production vehicles, from the Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme in the 1970s to the Chevrolet SSR.
Most outsiders didn’t initially peg Welburn as the front-runner for the job when Cherry, former vice president of design, neared retirement age.
It took Edward T. Welburn 42 years to become GM’s chief of design. Why so long? He started lobbying for the job when he was 11 years old.
“It’s a corny story, but its true,” says Welburn, 53. At an age when most kids are fantasizing about being an astronaut or sports star, he was writing GM saying he wanted to design cars.
However, also lurking in GM’s not-so-distant past are fleets of bland, look-alike designs from the ’80s and ’90s that helped accelerate its slide into mediocrity - plus a few big mistakes such as the Pontiac Aztek.
“I’m not in the studios everyday, at all. And I don’t know that I should be in the studios everyday. There’s a very talented team within the studios doing that work,” Welburn says. “What is important is that I am there to lead the teams. And just as important and maybe even more important, I am a member of the strategy board for North America and I’m a part of those meetings. We all believe (the strategy board) that design is extremely important, and as those very tough decisions are made, design is represented.”
She was among the coordinators of ACDelco’s Technician of the Millennium III contest in Las Vegas, overseeing the event and announcing winners at a banquet afterwards.