Travis Hester Vice President, Customer Experience

Effective immediately, Travis is appointed to Global Vice President of Customer Experience, reporting to Barry Engle, Executive VP and President, GM North America and Mark Reuss, GM President. In this new leadership role, Travis will head a global strategy focused on elevating end-to-end customer experiences to world-class levels.

Travis became president and managing director of GM Canada in April 2018 and led the Canadian Executive Council and GM Canada Advisory Board. While in Canada, Travis was integral in the Oshawa Transformation Agreement which included enhanced supports for employees, and the transition of the site to a unique new parts manufacturing operation and state-of-the-art test track for advanced vehicle testing.

Under his leadership and vision, GM Canada became the largest automotive software engineering workforce in Canada and expanded its innovation network through partnerships with Canadian universities, start-ups and business incubators.

From Bendigo, Australia, Travis’ career began at GM Holden. Starting in 1995 as a technical support engineer. Throughout the 10 years in Australia he worked in various design engineering and leadership roles on rear- wheel-drive vehicles, most notably the Holden Commodore and Statesman. Travis ended at Holden as technical assistant for the Holden CEO where he assisted across the Holden global business operations including sales and marketing, manufacturing, IT, purchasing, engineering, design and finance.

Travis relocated to the U.S. in 2005 as an advanced program engineering manager. In this role he worked on the Advanced Vehicle Development for vehicles such as Chevrolet Camaro, derivatives of Cadillac DTS and CTS plus a variety of V8 and Diesel Engine integrations.

From 2007 to 2010, Travis worked in China as the Vehicle Chief Engineer at PATAC (Pan Asia Technical Automotive Center) on vehicles such as the Buick Regal and LaCrosse, along with the Chevrolet Sonic.

Travis was the Executive Chief Engineer for Cadillac Premium Luxury Vehicles from 2010-2015, creating vehicles such as the Cadillac CT6. The Cadillac CT6 is known for its many advanced technology breakthroughs including the light-weight Mixed Material architecture and world first technologies such as Super Cruise and Inside Rear-View Camera Mirror.

From 2015 to 2018, he held the position of Vice President, Global Chief Engineers and Program Management. In that role, he led a global team of Executive Chief Engineers and program managers in 6 countries, executing more than 150 vehicle programs globally.

Travis has worked as a resident in the U.S., China and Australia in addition to architecture development in GM Korea and GM Europe. Most recently residing in Toronto as a permanent resident of Canada.

Travis received the 2016 Boss Kettering award for the Rear Camera Mirror and holds 4 patents for his inventions.

Travis holds a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering from Latrobe University in Victoria, Australia in 1994.