Corvette Chief Engineer Tadge Juechter is No. 4 on MotorTrend’s Power List for 2020

If you ever doubted the significance of the upcoming mid-engine Corvette, take a look at MotorTrend’s Power List for 2020, a compilation of the 50 most important names in the auto industry.

On the strength of leading the design of MotorTrend’s 2020 Car of the Year, the 2020 Corvette Stingray, Chief Engineer Tadge Juechter, unranked on the 2019 list, zoomed to the No. 4 spot in the 2020 ranking – ahead of two of his bosses, General Motors President Mark Reuss, who came in at No. 28, and GM Chairman and CEO Mary Barra, who ranked No. 6.

Said MotorTrend of Juechter:

“Juechter was able to squeeze the final dollops of power out of the C7 Corvette and then create a whole new beast: the long-awaited C8 with a mid-engine to increase power and performance. Despite all the tech, he engineered an affordable everyman’s supercar: 0 to 60 in 2.8 seconds for $60,000.”

Reuss, who moved up from No. 32 in 2019, earned the following praise from MT:

“Reuss is managing the day-to-day for an automaker as focused on the Corvette and Silverado as the goal to put 1 million electric vehicles on the road annually while developing autonomous vehicles and still making a profit. It means overseeing a leaner company going forward to fund the expensive tech.”

Barra, meanwhile, tumbled from the No. 1 spot in 2019 but still earned serious kudos from the magazine:

“Barra continues to be the tough, shrewd, and strategic leader that GM needs to remain profitable while investing heavily in electric and autonomous vehicles. Her decisive, no-nonsense approach has led to unpopular decisions to discontinue models, stop production, and cut jobs to meet long-term financial goals.”

Another GM leader, Chief Financial Officer Dhivya Suryadevera, was unranked in 2019 but made it to No. 23 for 2020.

MotorTrend says of her:

“In charge of GM’s finance department since 2018, Suryadevara is pivotal in achieving annual cost reductions of $4.5 billion through 2020—ensuring the automaker has the resources for ambitious EV and autonomous vehicle plans while keeping things running during a protracted labor strike.”

At the top of the 2020 list is MotorTrend’s Person of the Year, someone you may never have heard of, Peter Schreyer, President, Head of Design Management, for Hyundai Motor Group.

Writes MotorTrend of its No. 1 pick:
“Schreyer once said he wishes he could be a painter. The MotorTrend 2020 Person of the Year has taken a Korean canvas and created a masterpiece.”

Original source: Mitch Talley, CorvetteBlogger