Sterling Heights, Mich. — The 2022 SAE Foundation Annual Celebration was held on Tuesday evening at the GM Heritage Center in Sterling Heights, Mich. The special event was a celebration of the accomplishments of the men and women who inspire the next generation of innovators. It empowers the vision of tomorrow with the innovators of tomorrow.
The Industry Leadership Award winner was presented to Mark Reuss, President of General Motors. Also Bosch was the 10th annual recipient of the Gordon Millar Award. The Young Industry Leadership Awards went to two different individuals. The first award went to Leslie Heinzen of GM and the other was Kanwar Bharat Singh from Goodyear Tire and Rubber.
Mark Reuss, spoke about how much energy we can get out of a charge in an EV (electric vehicle)? “If we can get that charge time and range time up there, then people will want to drive it. Infrastructure charging time is the goal. The shipping shortage brought on by the pandemic that is exacerbated by the supply issue can be a problem. We have a great team with the GPS (Global Purchasing Supply) and we got all over that. However, we see the supply issues for many years to come,” says Reuss.
“We are constructing a design center at our Tech Center to support the transition to the electric vehicle transformation. It is attracting great talent and is sustaining an attractive workplace for all of us. People are going to Silicon Valley. But if you look at the talent at the tech companies, i see different things. We put tech centers where people want to work. We are competitive with tech companies in our own turf. So that is exciting. We are very interested in the STEM kids. If you get people interested, it gets people hooked. We couldn’t do it without the SAE Foundation.”
How can you keep people excited when the future is electric? “We have engineers who pull talent based on that. I hope to get them excited about it. Those people are leading those teams. Fire and passion is everything. That is a big competitive advantage.”
My dad, Lloyd Reuss, taught me so much. I’m very close to my dad. He says I got a big opportunity here. I watched someone handle things with grace. I’m very proud of him. It was really rewarding to get to the position I’m in today.”
“The future is autonomous vehicles. We won a lot of awards here. We are delivering groceries from Walmart in Arizona and couldn’t be more excited. We are partnering with an aerospace company. We are very interested in it particularly with Cadillac. The electric Corvette is not far away. The engine is not a vibration engine. The question is, do people want an artificial sound? People will change to electric cars. The charge point is important. If I can’t take my kids to Cedar Point or Chicago, that’s a problem. With my electric car, I don’t miss going to a gas station.”
It was a wonderful evening and we look forward to next year’s annual celebration.
For more information about the SAE Foundation, visit their website at: https://www.saefoundation.org/
Kanwar Bharat Singh from Goodyear won the SAE Foundation’s Young Industry Leadership Award 
Leslie Heinzen from General Motors also won the SAE Foundation’s Young Industry Leadership Award 
The all-new Hummer EV truck 
Emcee John McElroy chatting with GM’s Mark Reuss 
Chevrolet Bolt EV with Cruise autonomous technology 
Chevrolet Volt lithium-ion battery pack 
Students from Wayne State University with their SAE race car