As one of the highest-ranking woman within General Motors, Ms. Docherty is charged with guiding a new, lean, and customer-focused dealer network for her corporation. Join us as Ms. Docherty shares her experiences, views, and personal and professional stories that have shaped her successful career and are behind her current challenges. In addition to Ms. Docherty’s insights, participants will enjoy an early evening reception and then desserts following the program, with ample time to network with professionals within all disciplines in the automotive sector.
About Susan Docherty
EDUCATION
Susan holds two undergraduate degrees from the University of Windsor – a Bachelor of Commerce in Business Administration with a major in Marketing and a Bachelor of Arts majoring in Economics. She continued her education at Stanford University as a Sloan Fellow and graduated with Distinction.
FIRST JOB WITH GENERAL MOTORS
While attending college, Susan worked part-time on the midnight shift at the Windsor Transmission Plant. After graduating college, she dabbled in retail as a buyer. She joined GM a year later, where her first assignment was in Oshawa, Ontario as a customer service representative at the 1-800 call center.
WORK EXPERIENCE
Susan was appointed to the position of vice president of U.S. Marketing for GM North America on December 4, 2009 after briefly serving as vice president of U.S. Sales. In that role, she is responsible for sales and incentives for all the GM brands that touch the consumer: Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac, along with OnStar, Goodwrench and ACDelco.
Prior positions include:
· Vice President, U.S. Sales
· General Manager of Buick-Pontiac-GMC, where she led the launches of the 2010 Buick LaCrosse and GMC Terrain.
· Regional General Manager for Western Region, responsible for the Sales, Service, Distribution, Marketing and Parts for over 1000 dealers, in 16 states
· General Manager of HUMMER during its rapid expansion from 20K annual units to 60K units
· Marketing Director for the Cadillac Escalade, where she led the team responsible for conceiving, creating and launching the Escalade family of sport utilities that significantly changed the image of the brand
· Marketing Director for GM European operations based in Russelsheim, Germany
· Manager for International Marketing and Communications based in Zurich, Switzerland