OREANDA-NEWS. General Motors was named Most Supportive OEM at the fourth-annual Automotive Leaders Summit held today at the Mandarin Oriental in Las Vegas. Steve Kiefer, General Motors vice president Global Purchasing and Supply Chain was also awarded Purchasing Executive of the Year.

“These industry awards validate the ongoing hard work and dedication the entire team at General Motors has made to win with our global supply partners,” said Kiefer. “We set and communicated our key priorities, put new tools and processes in place, and defined new ways to accelerate innovation to be the OEM of choice among suppliers.”

The Automotive Leaders Summit, an annual conference hosted by international media company Three6Zero, attracted about 200 of the top automotive supply chain executives from around the globe. The conference featured several presentations and discussions that affect the global supply chain. Kiefer served as the opening keynote speaker. The conference also included an Automotive Global Awards event, a black-tie ceremony to honor individuals and companies in 25 categories.

GM beat BMW, Ford, and Volkswagen in online voting to win the Most Supportive OEM award, which honors the vehicle manufacturer that has done most to foster collaboration and partnership with its service providers. The award was nominated and voted by senior global executives from OEM, Tier suppliers, Logistics service providers, automotive industry consultants, among others. It is the first time GM has won the award.

Also during the awards ceremony, Kiefer was named the Purchasing Executive of the Year. The award honors the industry Purchasing executive who has demonstrated outstanding ability to work closely with the supply base. It is the first time a GM Purchasing executive from North America has won the award.

“Steve Kiefer has been instrumental in driving GM’s connectivity initiatives since his appointment to his current role in December 2014,” said Peter Wooding, conference organizer and Chief Executive Editor at Automotive Supply Chain magazine. “His talks with suppliers are much less about terms/conditions and material costs, and more about safe, defect-free vehicles, and accelerating innovation.”

About GM
General Motors Co. (NYSE:GM, TSX: GMM) and its partners produce vehicles in 30 countries, and the company has leadership positions in the world's largest and fastest-growing automotive markets. GM, its subsidiaries and joint venture entities sell vehicles under the Chevrolet, Cadillac, Baojun, Buick, GMC, Holden, Jiefang, Opel, Vauxhall and Wuling brands.