GM software leader Paris Cetinok is leaving amid the automaker’s restructuring

DETROIT – A third high-ranking technology executive is leaving GM Amid a restructuring of the automaker’s software and product businesses, CNBC has learned.

Paris Cetinok, GM’s senior vice president of software product management and services, will leave the company effective December 12, the automaker confirmed Tuesday following an internal employee announcement.

Cetinuk is the third technology executive turned automaker to leave GM in about a month, as the company combines its vehicle software engineering and global product units under one organization, led by new chief product officer Sterling Anderson.

“Barris has built a strong software product management team at GM,” GM said in an emailed statement to CNBC. “We are grateful for his contributions and wish him continued success. With the unification of hardware and software engineering under the global product umbrella, we are integrating product management with engineering to accelerate the delivery of exceptional in-vehicle experiences.”

Cetinok, who joined GM in September 2023 after stints with companies like apple, Microsoft and AmazonIt was not possible to immediately contact him for comment. The announcement of his departure comes a month after he described his position as “a productive person’s dream” in an interview with CNBC.

GM’s senior vice president of software engineering and services, Dave Richardson, and GM’s head of artificial intelligence, Barak Turovsky, have also left the company since October. Richardson has been with GM for more than two years, while Turovsky was hired in March.

Anderson left the self-driving company he co-founded, Aurora Innovationto join GM. He told CNBC last month that for an automaker to succeed, the software and the product must be thought of as one.

“I think that’s the goal of the role, it brings all of these pieces into a unified approach to how we will implement the product moving forward,” Anderson said during an Oct. 22 interview at a GM technology event in New York.

Anderson, a former McKinsey & Company consultant who later led… Tesla AutoPilot said its goal is to accelerate GM’s pace of innovation.

When Anderson’s appointment with GM was announced in May, Cetinuk said in a LinkedIn post that he was “thrilled to welcome” the executive to the company. GM CEO Mary Barra and GM Chairman Mark Reuss also praised Anderson as equipped to “evolve” and “reinvent” automaking operations.

The global auto industry has struggled for years to better integrate technology into vehicles – from their production to consumer-facing software and over-the-air or “over-the-air” updates, such as Tesla Pioneer.

GM has taken an aggressive approach to such challenges by hiring leaders from Tesla and technology companies like Apple and Google. However, more often than not, these executives had short tenures with the company.