Effective immediately, Elliot Swiss (pictured) has become the director of supply chain operations for Opel/Vauxhall, responsible for a broad range of supply chain activities at General Motor’s European division. Swiss has most recently been Opel/Vauxhall’s director of logistics, with responsibility for all inbound component and powertrain movement in Europe as well as the movement of Opel/Vauxhall vehicles. Swiss held this role since 2006, before which time he was the European managing director of Vector SCM – GM’s 4PL venture with Conway, later taken back in house – and also spent 13 years working in the supply chain for Ford Motor Company.
Swiss’s replacement is Jeffrey Morrison, who had been director of purchasing powertrain for Opel/Vauxhall. Morrison joined General Motors in 2006 as global commodity manager supporting Powertrain before assuming his previous position concurrently with an international assignment at Opel’s headquarters in Rüsselsheim, Germany.
Both Swiss and Morrison remain part of the Global Purchasing and Supply Chain group at GM, and report to Michael Scholl, Opel/Vauxhall’s director of supply chain. The Supply Chain department at GM and Opel/Vauxhall has four divisions – Logistics, Supply Chain Operations, Order Fulfilment and Supply Chain Planning.
Read Automotive Logistics News next week for an interview with Elliot Swiss on his goals and objectives in his new role.
Rodney Salmon has left returnable packaging provider Linpac Allibert after 16 years with the company. He had most recently been commercial director, with responsibility across Europe. Salmon told Automotive Logistics News that he handed in his resignation at the end of 2009 as Linpac hit financial difficulty. He officially left the company last week.
The Linpac Group, previously owned by the private equity firm Montagu, was sold to a consortium of lenders at the end of 2009 after the company struggled to repay high debt levels. Linpac currently contains four companies, including Linpac Packaging, Allibert, Ropack and Viscount. “KPMG have been brought in and it is slicing the company up,” said Salmon. “It was a good time for me to leave.”
Salmon has now set up an independent consultancy, called Salmon, which will continue to work with packaging providers with considerable focus on the automotive industry. He is currently working on marketing products for automotive in Europe for Macro Plastics and Orbis Corporation, including a plastic folding bin from Macro Plastics that can fill out a sea container.
