John Middlebrook
Times Nominated: 1
Nominated Year(s): 2024
Last Year of Eligibility: 2031
Category: Pontiac Company
Born in Lansing Michigan, John began his GM career in 1959 with Oldsmobile as an engineering student at General Motors Institute. He graduated in 1964 and was assigned to a field sales position in the Oldsmobile North Carolina zone. In 1966, he left Oldsmobile and attended Michigan State for his MBA degree. In 1967 he joined Pontiac after an interview and job offer from then General manager John Delorean. From 1967-1977 John moved from assistant sales analysis manager to manager to marketing service manager. In 1977 he was appointed zone manager in Pontiacs Washington Zone.
He returned to Pontiacs central office in 1978 as a car distribution manager and then became head of product planning for Pontiac in 1979. It was in this position that he ran an image conference for general manager Bill Hoglund that produced the following image statement that would guide Pontiac marketing and products for the balance of the divisions life:
“PONTIAC IS A CAR COMPANY KNOWN FOR INNOVATIVE STYLING AND ENGINEERING THAT RESULTS IN PRODUCTS WITH OUSTANDING PERFORMANCE AND ROADABILITY”
“WE BUILD EXCITEMENT’ became the rallying cry and Pontiac began producing products like the 6000 STE, FIERO, GRAND AM, PERFORMANCE FIREBIRDS, WIDE-TRACK GRAND PRIXS AND BONNEVILLE SSEi to back it up.
John was promoted to a corporate position as head of passenger car planning in 1981 and then returned to Pontiac as assistant general sales manager for marketing and operations in 1983. In 1984, he was appointed to Saturn VP for sales and marketing and in 1986 was promoted to corporate VP for marketing and product planning.
In 1989, John was promoted again to his life-long goal - Pontiac general manager. He refers to the following 6 years as the ‘best years of his 49-year career” with GM as the division introduced exciting products and was in 3rd place in the industry sales. In 1995, John became Chevrolet general manager and in 1999 he became corporate VP of marketing; responsible for the marketing of ALL GM brands. In 2004 until his retirement in 2008, he was General Motors VP for Global Sales, service and marketing reporting directly to the Chairman of GM.
