The changes actually began five days ago when GM emerged from court protection after almost six weeks of bankruptcy. And this is the latest change. General Motors has announced the retirement of their R&D chief Larry Burns and Public Relations head Steve Harris.

Come the 1^st of October, Alan Taub will take over from the 58 years old Burns.  Chris Preuss, 43, vice president in charge of General Motors Europe communications will take charge from Harris, who came out of retirement more than three years ago.

Taub will report to Tom Stephens, vice chairman of product development. GM said that beginning today it is integrating its global R&D and Product Development operations.

Another GM announcement informed all that on July 20, the 54 years old Bob Osborne, group vice president and general counsel, will leave GM. Michael Millikin, 60, associate general counsel, will succeed him.

Preuss, who started his GM career in 1998 at Cadillac and has also been in charge of global product communications, will report to Lutz.

Lutz, in his role, will have some oversight of design.  He will attempt to align that with GM’s marketing and advertising messages.

Marketing had been the responsibility of Mark LaNeve, who remains in charge of car sales currently, CEO Fritz Henderson announced.

Also on that day, Henderson took over as president of North America from Troy Clarke. Clarke’s future has been left to be decided at later point in time.  According to Henderson, in the next three weeks, other executive changes would be sorted out.