General Motors said Tuesday it is losing both its head of manufacturing and its newly hired head of software. GM's Executive Vice President of Global of Manufacturing and Sustainability Gerald Johnson, 61, is retiring after 44 years with GM, the automaker said. GM also announced that Mike Abbott, 51, executive vice president of Software and Services, will be leaving the company due to health reasons.

Abbott, the former vice president of engineering for Apple's Cloud Services division, joined GM in May 2023 to take over managing GM's entire software systems, including those in its vehicles. Jens Peter Clausen will replace Johnson, GM said in a statement. Clausen is an industrial leader with vast expertise in global manufacturing, product engineering and scaling operations.

Clausen, 52, will join GM on April 2. He comes from Tesla, where he spearheaded the rapid scaling of electric vehicle propulsion systems at Tesla's Gigafactory 1 and played a crucial role in making EVs more accessible, GM said. His expertise also extends to biomanufacturing. At biotech company Zymergen, he automated gene manufacturing and fermentation technology.

His resume includes Lego, where he led a financial turnaround by simplifying the product and component portfolio. GM said that when he served as vice president of engineering at Google Data Centers he drove technological innovation, product development and process optimization. Abbott's replacement in software GM said Abbott has led significant advancements in the company's approach to software design, development, execution and quality testing.

He expanded GM's Software and Services leadership team by recruiting executives from Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta and Microsoft. Baris Cetinok, 51, current vice president of product in Software and Services, has been named the interim head of Software and Services while a search is conducted, GM said.