Annette K. Clayton, president of Saturn Corporation, visited Michigan Tech's Department of Mechanical Engineering - Engineering Mechanics in September 2003. Several General Motors Corp. engineering staff also visited campus and met with students.
Ms. Clayton presented a seminar to students and faculty, followed by a dialog of questions and answers. Student teams made presentations, and after that, pizza and drinks were served while the GM engineers visited with students.
Annette Clayton is currently serving as president of Saturn Corporation and manufacturing manager for the Spring Hill, Wilmington and Bowling Green assembly plants.
She was appointed president of Saturn in April 2001 and increased her responsibilities as a manufacturing manager in May 2002. Prior to her current assignment, Clayton was a leader in implementing GM's global manufacturing system in North America.
Clayton joined GM as a co-op student with the Moraine, Ohio, assembly plant in 1983. She held various production, engineering and maintenance assignments at the plant until 1992, when she became its assistant superintendent of production. In 1994, she was promoted to area manager of body operations at Fort Wayne, Ind., and in 1995, she was named area manager of general assembly.
She was appointed assistant plant manager at Fort Wayne in 1997, and named plant manager at GM's Oshawa, Ontario, truck assembly plant in 1999. In the above assignments, Clayton played an integral role in the launch of the original and redesigned midsize Chevrolet Blazer, GMC Jimmy and Oldsmobile Bravada sport utility vehicles, as well as the Chevrolet and GMC full-size pickup trucks.
Clayton, 40, earned a bachelor's degree in general engineering from Wright State University in 1986, and a master's degree in engineering management from the University of Dayton in 1992. She completed the London Business School executive program in 1997.
In April 2003, Clayton was appointed to the board of directors for Polaris Industries. She also serves as a member of the External Advisory Board for the College of Engineering and Computer Science at Wright State University.
Among the GM engineers who visited campus, the Michigan Tech alumni were:
Tanya Klain '90 BSME, working on GM Cadillac CTS and Seville
Tracie Moonen '92 BSME, working on a new vehicle for GM
Kevin Wittrup '95 MSME
James De Clerck '91 PhD ME
Trista Shieffer '97 BSME
Jon Masini '91 BSME, designing engineer for luxury and performance cars
Geoff Weller '75 BSME, Director, Process Guardian, Global Manufacturing System
Some Quotes from Annette Clayton:"GM's goal is to remain #1. . . GM will make 'got to have' products. . you can expect more innovations."
She said, "seeing fresh new products come to life is really enjoying"
She said that GM wants to have a diverse workforce, that "a company ought to look like its customer base. . . and diversity of minds makes for better solutions ... GM needs a constant infusion of new talent."