General Motors Corp. named Sigal Cordeiro to lead Maven after the unexpected departure of Julia Steyn on Jan. 29, a spokeswoman for the company's car-sharing business confirmed.
Cordeiro was appointed vice president of General Motors Urban Mobility and Maven last week. Most recently, she was executive director leading global product marketing for a new family of vehicles for key global markets, spokeswoman Annalisa Esposito Bluhm said.
A native of Brazil, Cordeiro has been with GM since 2000. She started in Detroit as a Chevrolet brand analyst, Bluhm said. Cordeiro managed marketing partnerships at TAM Brazilian Airlines and was director of consumer Insights with NBC Universal.
Maven is GM's app-based car-sharing program that enables users to rent cars by the hour. It is focused on urban dwellers, offered in 24 cities in the United States, Canada and Australia.
Cordeiro is a marked departure from her predecessor Steyn, who joined GM in 2012. Having worked outside GM and the auto industry, Steyn fostered an acumen for developing businesses rather than marketing products.
Steyn was a corporate wunderkind when she joined GM in her 30s as head of mergers and acquisitions and had been the only leader of its Maven car-sharing program.
GM initially did not issue a statement about her abrupt departure. This week, Bluhm said, "Julia Steyn elected to pursue interests outside of General Motors. Her decision was personal."
Bluhm said Steyn was not part of the carmaker's 15 percent reduction in its global white-collar workforce that GM is now completing.
