DETROIT: Pat Morrissey will step into the role of director of communications strategy and news relations at General Motors on September 2.
Reporting to Randy Arickx, executive director of financial comms and IR, Morrissey will oversee GM’s corporate media relations. He will act as company spokesman and be responsible for GM’s broadcast, social media, and public-policy communications, according to Terry Rhadigan, executive director of product and technology communications at GM.
Morrissey will take on the position as Greg Martin, who is currently responsible for those duties as executive director of communications strategy and news operations, moves into a new role at the company as executive director of global public policy. Martin will report to Bob Ferguson, SVP of global public policy, in the new role.
"[Morrissey’s] new role will be very similar to the scope of the job [Martin] currently has," said Rhadigan.
Morrissey currently reports to Rhadigan as GM’s director of product and brand communications, a position he has held for five years. In the role, he has led the product and brand team through product launches, helped to tell the GM product and corporate story, and served in key positions during GM’s bankruptcy and ignition-switch recall crisis response.
Rhadigan said GM has not yet determined if it will replace Morrissey as director of product and brand communications. Rhadigan will take on that role’s duties in the interim.
Morrissey joined GM in 1986 and has served in various comms leadership positions since, including director of communications for Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Morrissey was not immediately available for comment.
GM has made a number of communications personnel moves this year. Last month, Ferguson was tapped as SVP of global public policy, succeeding Selim Bingol, who had the title of SVP of global comms and public policy.
Tony Cervone took on the global comms portion of Bingol’s responsibilities as SVP of global communications in May. Earlier that month, GM retained former PR leader Steve Harris to serve as its chief spokesperson for a limited time, focusing on the company’s response to faulty ignition switches in its Chevrolet Cobalt model, which has been linked to 13 deaths.
In April, GM brought on former Clinton White House crisis comms specialist Jeff Eller, who left his role as EVP and co-chair of Hill+Knowlton Strategies' global crisis practice in March to support GM with its response to the crisis.
The automaker also retained Washington-based lawyer Kenneth Feinberg in March to explore compensation for families of accident victims.
