![\"General](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Supercars-Townsville-Friday-154.jpg\")
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJess Bala with Team 18 boss Charlie Schwerkolt. Image: InSyde Media<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJess Bala with Team 18 boss Charlie Schwerkolt. Image: InSyde Media<\/p>\n
Bala had spent almost 20 years in the GM system, starting at Holden and spending a decade in Detroit before returning to take the top job for GM Australia and New Zealand in 2023.<\/p>\n
She took over at a tumultuous time for the business as it attempts to find its feet following the shuttering of Holden at the end of 2020.<\/p>\n
A troubled rollout of Cadillac in the market, as well as other challenges around product choices, are believed to have contributed to the decision.<\/p>\n
Bala was a supporter of GM\u2019s local racing efforts and a regular attendee at Supercars events, including the weekend\u2019s Ipswich Super440 at Queensland Raceway.<\/p>\n
However, a shake-up at GM ANZ is not expected to impact the Camaro Supercars program.<\/p>\n
Program boss Simon McNamara and technical lead Grant McPherson \u2013 who will start in his role ahead of the Bathurst 1000 \u2013 are engaged directly via the US-based GM Motorsport.<\/p>\n
Those US-led appointments followed the loss of Triple Eight to Ford in a deal that gazumped Australian GM management.<\/p>\n
The loss of Triple Eight has reduced Chevrolet to a bit-player role in this year\u2019s championship, with just one Camaro driver currently set to qualify for the Finals Series.<\/p>\n
GM thanked Bala for her tenure via a statement, confirming Greg Rowe, currently Director of Sales and Operations, will serve as acting managing director.<\/p>\n
\u201cFollowing an accomplished two-decade career with General Motors, Managing Director of GM Australia and New Zealand, Jess Bala, has elected to depart the company,\u201d it read.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn her time as GM Australia and New Zealand Managing Director, Jess drove the growth of our world-class portfolio, including Cadillac EVs, Corvette and full-size trucks and SUVs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe thank Jess for her contribution to the business and wish her well in her future endeavours.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jess Bala with Team 18 boss Charlie Schwerkolt. Image: InSyde Media Bala had spent almost 20 years in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":580591,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[138,286020,111,139,69,1058],"class_list":["post-580590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-jess-bala","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-slot1"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=580590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580590\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/580591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=580590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=580590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=580590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}