Gerald Meyers

Gerald Meyers

Adjunct Professor of Management and Organizations
Biography

Gerald C. Meyers is a well known industrialist, author, speaker, former Chairman of American Motors, active business consultant, and an expert in the field of Corporate Governance and Crisis Management in business.  He was the Ford Distinguished Professor of Business at Carnegie Mellon University, Graduate School of Industrial Administration, and is currently Professor of Organizational Behavior at the University of Michigan Business School in Ann Arbor.

After taking two degrees at Carnegie Mellon, a B.S. in engineering and a M.S. in business, he joined the Ford Motor Company in 1950.  His next eight years were with the Chrylser Corporation where he became Director of Manufacturing for all overseas plants in 1961, residing in Geneva, Switzerland for three years.  In 1962, he became Director of Purchasing for American Motors Corporation in Detroit.  He was promoted to Director of Manufacturing, Vice-President of Manufacturing, Vice-President of the Product (Engineering) Group, Executive Vice-President, President and Chief Operating Officer, and finally Chairman and Chief Executive Officer in 1977 for the next five years.  He retired early from the corporation in 1984 after he successfully engineered the merger of the company with the French automotive company, Renault.

He is President of Gerald C. Meyers Associates, Inc., a consulting firm exclusively engaged in advising and assisting senior management.  He is the author of When It Hits the Fan, Managing the Nine Crises of Business, Houghton-Mifflin, Boston, MA.  In addition, he is co-author of Dealers, Healers, Brutes & Saviors, Eight Winning Styles for Solving Giant Business Crises, John Wiley & Sons, NY, NY, 2000, www.wiley.com/dealershealers.

He served as an officer in the U.S. Air Force during the Korean conflict.  He has been awarded the Cross of the French Legion of Honor.