When Juan Manuel Santos takes over as Colombia’s president in August, the Harvard-educated economist will continue many of the same pro-business, pro-U.S. policies of President Alvaro Uribe that helped transform their South America country into a magnet for foreign investment. But Santos, 58, plans to boost emphasis on creating jobs and modernizing the economy, now that the two-term Uribe has wrestled down Colombia’s once severe security problems — with Santos’ input as his former defense minister. Those are among the upbeat conclusions from participants at WorldCity’s Global Connections event held… Read More
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GM Latin America President Maureen Kempston Darkes
For GM LatAm, 'business as usual,' president says
General Motor’s Latin America operation is not part of the GM Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing last week, and its top leader is planning a series of face-to-face meetings in the region to drive that point home, among other things.
GM’s headquarters for Latin America, Africa and the Middle East is in Plantation, Fla., and run by company veteran Maureen Kempston Darkes, a group vice president as well as regional president.
“We have been and will continue to be very proactive and transparent with our communications and marketing plans in the region,” Kempston Darkes said, “with the primary intent to reassure customers that, first, it’s ‘business as usual’ in the LAAM region and, second, that they will continue to receive the service and warranty protection that they’ve come to expect with their GM vehicles.”
The bankruptcy filing included GM in North America as well as Saturn and its distribution corporation arm and Chevrolet-Saturn of Harlem.
GM Latin America, Africa and Middle East is “a collection of self-funded companies and pending court approval, LAAM will become part of the new GM.” Also excluded from the filing were the company’s European operations and its Asia-Pacific operations.
The Latin America, Africa, Middle East region was responsible for selling almost 1.3 million vehicles in 2008, a record. It has manufacturing facilities in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Egypt, Kenya, South Africa and Venezuela. GM LAAM markets vehicles under the Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, Hummer, Isuzu, Opel, Saab and Suzuki brands.
By comparison, the North America operation, which includes Canada and Mexico, sold almost 3.6 million, while GM Europe’s sales were a sliver over 2 million units and Asia-Pacific had almost 1.5 million.
From its Plantation headquarters, GM oversees 31,000 employees compared with 112,000 for the North America operation, 55,000 for Europe and 35,000 for Asia-Pacific.
Kempston Darkes plans to have her first face-to-face meetings with key constituents in July in South Africa, she said.
“Overall, our region is made up of emerging markets,” she said. “And growth in emerging markets is a key strategy for GM. Growth in Brazil, Argentina, Egypt, North Africa and the Andean countries has been rapid over the past several years, as has growth in the Middle East.
“With the current global credit crisis, we expect continued slowing in some of our markets,” she said. “However, demand in select markets has been more robust than expected due to local government stimulus programs like the IPI tax savings offered in Brazil.
“As we deal with the huge economic challenges around the world today, I am reminded that, in general, economic and political uncertainties have been the norm in LAAM. We are used to dealing with the volatility in our markets and intentionally keep our operations lean and flexible. We prepare for the downside — and we have survived and prospered on the upside.”
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