A year ago Stefan Jacoby used the Detroit auto show to tout Volkswagen's plans to attack the U.S. market, while Adrian Hallmark, Jacoby's predecessor as head of VW of America, and Jonathan Browning, Jacoby's eventual successor, were waiting for their next big opportunities.
When the doors open at this year's Detroit show Jacoby will be the face of Volvo, where he is now CEO following Ford's sale of the Swedish brand to China's Geely; Hallmark, after a seven-month stint in 2010 at Saab, will be talking about Jaguar's sales goal as the company's global brand director; and Browning will be the one giving details on how VW plans to continue toward its goal of tripling U.S. sales of VW brand and Audi cars to 1 million by 2018.
The executive merry-go-round definitely picked up speed as we went from global crisis to shaky rebound.
The result has been a dizzying number of changes that has put a lot of familiar faces in new places and kept the printers of business cards very happy.
