GM tech executive shakeup continues on software team

The software team at General Motors has now lost three top executives in the past month as the automaker — with its new chief product officer at the helm — combines its disparate technology businesses into one organization.

Baris Cetinok, senior vice president of software and services product management, is leaving the company effective Dec. 12, the company confirmed to TechCrunch. CNBC was the first to report the departure.

Dave Richardson, senior vice president of software and services engineering, and Barak Turovsky, who was hired in March as head of AI at the automaker, have also left in the past month. Cetinok and Richardson joined GM in 2023. All three had deep tech experience with stints at a variety of tech companies including Apple and Google.

The departures come several months since GM hired Sterling Anderson to a newly created chief product officer position. Anderson’s role puts him in direct contact, and management, of nearly every department at GM.

Anderson, a veteran of the autonomous vehicle industry who reports to GM President Mark Reuss, leads the vehicle and manufacturing engineering, battery, and software and services product management teams. The aim of the position is to oversee the entire lifecycle of GM’s portfolio and include hardware, software, services, and user experience.

The departures are part of a restructuring within GM that’s supposed to remove silos within the business and better integrate how software is developed and deployed in the company’s cars, trucks, and SUVs. Instead of separate teams, each with overlapping roles, the plan is to integrate hardware and software engineering, AI capabilities, and global product into one organization, according to a series of statements covering each executive’s departure.

As Anderson reshapes the organization, he is also bringing in new talent. Cristian Mori, who has been at Symbiotic, Rivian, and Boston Dynamics over the past five years, has been hired into a new role to head up robotics. While GM has a team of manufacturing engineers that develops automation and robotics, there has never been a specific chief robotics role, which will fall under Anderson’s organization.

GM hired Behrad Toghi, who previously worked at Apple, in October as AI lead. The company also hired Rashed Haq as its vice president of autonomous vehicles. Haq spent five years at Cruise, the self-driving vehicle company acquired and later shuttered by GM, as its head of AI and robotics.