Johan de Nysschen Out!
Suddenly, as of yesterday (April 18), former Cadillac head Johan de Nysschen is out. Replacing him for now will be, former head of GM-Canada, Steve Carlisle.
de Nysschen was recruited to run Cadillac after a short stint heading Nissan's Infiniti division where his most significant fingerprints were the change to the confusing Q and QX naming convention. Before this he headed up the VW group's Audi brand in the Americas.
While at Cadillac since 2014, he pushed for a controversial move of the headquarters to New York. He also quashed the positioning of Cadillac's Omega chassis sedan as a flagship. It became the CT6 and plans are in the works for something even better above it. Speaking of CT6, he will be remembered for pushing a new CT and XT naming convention that may be scrapped now that he is gone.
It does seem that GM management never can allow Cadillac to execute a complete vision before getting cold feet and removing the brand's top executive. We will regret not getting to see Johan de Nysschen's vision for the brand fully developed.