Ed Welburn, the man who brought beauty back to General Motors, is retiring after 11 years as the company’s chief global designer.

Welburn, 65, will step down as vice president of GM global design on July 1. He will be replaced by Michael Simcoe, 58, vice president of GM international design in Australia.
Looking back at 2005, when Welburn was promoted from his two-year stint as North American design chief, Cadillac was teething with its “Art & Science” language, Buick was utterly lost, the quirky SSR was the only bright spot among a sea of bland also-rans at Chevy, like Malibu Maxx and Venture minivans. GM was bloated in other brands it cared very little to manage, let alone design. Today, re-badging is easily discerned only at GMC, and the Malibu’s body can actually be described as stunning. GM now has 10 design centers in seven countries (Germany, South Korea, China, India, Australia, Brazil, and the U.S.) that collaborate on every concept and production car the company sells. Certainly, it’s been a team effort?and no doubt enthusiast champions like former product development vice chairman Bob Lutz and current executive vice president Mark Reuss played a huge part?but exterior and interior design are the industry’s lasting (and damning) first impressions.
Recently, we’ve seen Welburn standing in front of gorgeous concept cars that may never see the light of day. But so much of GM’s product renaissance, if not its bank...