VW of America Exec to Lead Finance at Opel

General Motors continues to make changes in the top ranks of its troubled European subsidiary Adam Opel, hiring Volkswagen’s Michael Lohscheller to take over as management board member in charge of finance as well as Opel/Vauxhall’s chief financial officer and vice president-finance, effective Sept. 1.

Lohscheller, who currently serves as executive vice president and CFO at Volkswagen Group of America, succeeds Mark N. James. Opel says James’s professional future will be announced later.

GM also names Michael Ableson as board member in charge of engineering starting Sept. 1. He becomes GM Europe vice president-engineering, effective immediately.

Ableson presently is GM’s global vehicle line executive for compact cars, based in Russelsheim, Germany. He succeeds Rita Forst, who will resign from the board.

Announcing the changes in a statement, GM Vice Chairman and Opel Supervisory Board Chairman Steve Girsky says Lohscheller and Ableson will help accelerate the auto maker’s revitalization plan.

Girksy earlier this month was asked to fill in on an interim basis to lead GM Europe after Opel’s Management Board Chairman and GM Europe President Karl-Friedrich Stracke was reassigned to an unspecified role.

Lohscheller, 43, has led a successful turnaround at VW America, driving significant growth and profit improvement over the past four years, Opel says in a statement.

The German native has more than 20 years of experience in senior finance positions at companies such as Daimler, Mitsubishi Motor Europe and Volkswagen. At VW, he has broad business responsibilities for finance, IT, purchasing and logistics.

Ableson’s responsibilities have included global engineering of compact vehicles such as the Opel/Vauxhall Astra and GTC. He has been with GM for more than 25 years and led GM’s global advanced vehicle development prior to his appointment as vehicle line executive.