GM hires Nio and Lyft executives; Stellantis poaches Amazon VP

Automakers General Motors and Stellantis have poached executives from several technology companies, including Amazon and Lyft, as the industries continue to vie for top talent.

The automakers announced the hires Tuesday, marking the latest round of talent swaps between the automotive and technology industries as the sectors converge with the emergence of connected, autonomous and electric vehicles.

GM is adding four new executives to its BrightDrop EV commercial delivery and logistics business, which the company announced in January. The new hires are effective immediately, according to GM:

• Anthony Armenta, formerly Postmates’ vice president of engineering, will be chief technology officer.
• Rachad Youssef, formerly vice president of software product management at Chinese electric vehicle start-up Nio, will be chief product officer.
• Shaluinn Fullove, formerly Lyft’s global head of people for autonomous technology and rideshare platforms, will join as chief people officer.
• Steve Hornyak, formerly chief commercial officer at Fabric, will become chief revenue officer.

Stellantis, formerly Fiat Chrysler, said it has hired Ned Curic, Amazon’s vice president of Alexa Automotive, as its first chief technology officer since the company was formed through a merger of Fiat Chrysler and French automaker PSA Groupe in January.

“Ned joins us at the perfect time to shape Stellantis in the context of unprecedented shift of our industry,” Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares said in a statement.

Curic, who previously worked at Toyota Motor and Microsoft, will begin with Stellantis on Aug. 30.

The automotive and technology industries are increasingly battling for talent with the emergence of connected vehicles and companies from both sides researching and developing autonomous vehicles. Automotive start-up companies such as Lucid and Rivian also are vying for top talent from both sectors.

Tech companies have been winning in recent years. Ford Motor lost its chief technology officer earlier this month to Amazon as well as two marketing executives to Google and Facebook in 2020. GM last also lost CFO Dhivya Suryadevara to digital payments company Stripe. Before that, Alicia Boler Davis — who led GM’s global manufacturing — left for Amazon.