Dan Ammann, CEO of GM’s Cruise Autonomous-Car Unit, Is Leaving the Firm

Mr. Ammann, a New Zealand native, spent a number of years as GM’s president earlier than shifting on to run Cruise in early 2019. Whereas GM’s president and Ms. Barra’s No. 2 govt, Mr. Ammann was credited with shaping a technique to shrink GM’s international footprint, together with the sale of its European enterprise, to sharpen its deal with electrical and driverless know-how.

In October, Mr. Ammann outlined for buyers an formidable goal for Cruise to roll out hundreds of robotic taxis throughout U.S. cities within the coming years. He advised analysts at a GM investor convention that he noticed a path for Cruise to realize $50 billion in income by the top of the last decade.

GM mentioned in a press release Thursday that it could speed up the technique that Mr. Ammann laid out to buyers. GM’s shares had been down 2.4% Thursday in after-hours buying and selling.

Mr. Ammann led GM’s 2016 acquisition of Cruise for about $1 billion. The San Francisco firm has grown to about 2,000 workers from about 40 and has attracted large buyers, together with Japan’s

SoftBank Group Corp.

,

Microsoft Corp.

and strategic investor

Honda Motor Co.

Cruise was valued at about $30 billion earlier this yr, GM mentioned. Analysts have been inspired by Cruise’s potential, saying within the wake of GM’s investor day that the unit’s market value may someday eclipse that of GM itself.

“If Cruise achieves its targets, it may arguably see a path to valuation within the lots of of billions,” Credit score Suisse analyst

Dan Levy

wrote.

Cruise, which has been testing self-driving automobiles for years on San Francisco streets, is seen by analysts as a pacesetter in autonomous-vehicle know-how. Nonetheless, like many different driverless-car builders, it delayed commercialization plans lately amid the technical challenges of refining robotic automobiles.

Mr. Ammann joined GM as treasurer in 2010 after a decade as an funding banker at Morgan Stanley. He was closely concerned in GM’s preliminary public providing that yr and shortly was named CFO at age 38.

Additionally this week, GM mentioned its head of innovation, engineer

Pam Fletcher,

will go away to turn out to be

Delta Air Strains Inc.’s

chief sustainability officer.

Write to Mike Colias at Mike.Colias@wsj.com