Dan Ammann, the former General Motors president who abruptly left his post as CEO of Cruise in December, has been named president of ExxonMobil Low Carbon Solutions.
Ammann replaces Joe Blommaert, who is retiring after 35 years in the company. Ammann’s appointment will take effect on May 1, according to a company statement.
Ammann, 49, had been CEO of self-propelled vehicle company Cruise since 2019. GM now owns 80 percent of Cruise.
Ammann was president of GM from 2014 to 2018 and the automaker’s CFO from 2011 to 2014 after more than a decade as a Wall Street banker.
He said in a LinkedIn post on Tuesday that he will lead the building of new business at ExxonMobil with a focus on the decarbonisation of the industrial economy.
“We will significantly move the needle towards net zero in the industries that are most difficult to decarbonise, in an economically viable way and with urgent effect,” he wrote. “To do this, we will draw on the deep resources and know-how that exist in ExxonMobil today, along with the best external ideas and an initial $ 15 billion capital commitment that the company has made to build this business and reduce emissions.”
Ammann outlined ambitious growth plans for Cruise on GM’s investor day last fall. The company is in the process of launching a self-propelled robotic taxi service in San Francisco and aims to expand to other cities. Cruise intends to launch a fleet of at least 1 million self-propelled vehicles by 2030.
“After spending the last few years leading the incredible team at Cruise, as we took self-driving cars from the science fiction field to an early commercial product that will fundamentally change transportation, the bar would always be high in terms of what next mission could have a similarly massive potential impact, “Ammann said.
“That said, with this option I think I’ve found it!”