Vauxhall chairman and chief executive Duncan Aldred is set to move to General Motors' headquarters in Detroit to join its Buick brand.

Aldred has been appointed US vice–president, Buick-GMC Sales, Service and Marketing commencing March 1 and will be based at GM’s global headquarters in Detroit.

A new head for Vauxhall will be announced in due course, the carmaker said.

Aldred joined Vauxhall as an undergraduate at its Ellesmere Port plant in 1990 and, with Vauxhall sponsorship, went on to graduate from Liverpool John Moores University with a BA (Hons) in 1992. 

He subsequently worked in various positions in Vauxhall sales and marketing and was appointed retail sales director in 2004. 

In July 2006 he moved to Budapest as director, sales, marketing and aftersales for GM’s South East Europe region, transferring to Germany to take the role of sales operations director for GM Europe in 2009.

Returning to the UK in January 2010, he became managing director of Vauxhall Motors, adding the chairman’s responsibilities in December 2011. In addition to these roles, he took the assignment of acting vice president, sales, marketing and aftersales for Opel/Vauxhall in January 2013.