GM lured new product chief with pay package totaling $40 million

By Kalea Hall

April 20 (Reuters) – General Motors recruited new product chief Sterling Anderson last year with a pay package totaling as much as $40 million, a regulatory filing on Monday showed.

GM hired Anderson last year from autonomous-trucking company Aurora, where he was a co-founder and chief product officer. The former Tesla executive has been put in charge of large swaths of GM’s business, including development of new electric and gasoline-powered vehicles, as well as software. 

To recruit him to GM, the automaker created a new compensation structure that it “believed was necessary and appropriate to recruit him to GM from his prior company where he had an influential leadership role and a significant equity interest.”

Anderson received $16 million last year, with the potential to earn his total new-hire award of $24 million over this year and 2027 if he stays with the company and meets certain performance targets, GM’s proxy statement showed. 

Industry insiders view Anderson as a potential contender to succeed CEO Mary Barra, who has been GM’s CEO since early 2014. A GM spokesperson said “the board reviews management succession planning in the ordinary course of business.” 

For 2025, Barra was given a pay package that could total $29.9 million, including a mix of future stock awards and bonus.

(Reporting by Kalea Hall in Detroit; Editing by Mike Colias and Stephen Coates)