GM chooses Docherty to head U.S. sales

DETROIT, Oct. 13 (UPI) -- General Motors Co. turned to an insider -- and for the first time a woman -- Susan Docherty, to replace the head of U.S. sales, Mark LaNeve.

Docherty will become the only woman on the nine-member executive committee to advise GM Chief Executive Officer Fritz Henderson, the Detroit Free Press reported Tuesday.

"It's a very important signal of some new thinking at GM," said industry consultant Anne Doyle.

Docherty, 46, started at GM working part time while attending the University of Windsor in Ontario, Canada.

"I had no vision at that point that I was going to enter the auto industry (permanently), but thought that with Ford, General Motors and Chrysler all producing vehicles in that city, that it would be important for me to understand the industry," Docherty said in an interview in 2007.

Before her promotion, Docherty worked on Saturn sales in Canada and Cadillac and Chevrolet sales in Europe. She headed Hummer sales, then took over sales of Buick-Pontiac-GMC.

She has her work cut out for her, directing the company's move to sever ties with 2,400 dealerships by the end of next year, while mounting a sales resurgence during the largest economic downturn since the 1930s.