Behind the Wheel: GM’s Mark Reuss and Lear’s Ray Scott on Partnership, AI, and the Road Ahead
📅 Oct 08, 2026Automotive News and Automotive Hall of Fame12 MIN171 VIEWS25 SEGMENTS · 3 SPEAKERS
On Behind the Wheel, a partnership with Automotive News and the Automotive Hall of Fame, Automotive News Publisher KC Crain speaks with GM President Mark Reuss and Lear President & CEO Ray Scott. This conversation took place during the Automotive News Congress event in Detroit just after Mark Reuss was presented the 2026 Industry Leader Award from the Automotive Hall of Fame. In this conversation the three discuss how trust built over decades turns a supplier relationship into a true strategic partnership, plus how GM and Lear are navigating faster development timelines, AI and automation on...
What Mark Reuss said
Written from the verified transcript and checked against it. Every figure links to the moment it was said.
Mark Reuss, President of General Motors, discussed the foundations of strategic supplier partnerships, emphasizing transparency in decision-making and shared vision through market cycles, naming Lear as a key partner. He highlighted compressed development cycles, citing the Hummer program completed in 25-26 months, and stressed the importance of early supplier integration. On the software-defined vehicle, Reuss said GM's role is platform integration and centralized compute, making experiences seamless across devices. He rejected the term 'commodity' for automotive parts. Reuss also spoke about leadership responsibility: fostering employee development by providing diverse job experiences, noting his own 40-year career with multiple roles, and equipping people with tools like AI to succeed. He took this responsibility seriously, stating it is crucial for future generations.
Key takeaways
GM completed the Hummer program in 25-26 months. (ts 229)
Early supplier integration, even before 'properties,' is a huge advantage. (ts 229)
0:39What turns a long-term supplier relationship into a true strategic partnership, especially when cost pressure is high and the technology is changing so quickly?
3:32What really earns them a seat at the very beginning stage?
5:14What's it going to, you know, mean for the long term, you know, of my career path?
6:37How should the automaker and the suppliers divide responsibility when you're creating content packages or one experience for the customer?
8:56And as you guys think beyond financial results, what responsibility do leaders have to develop the people and the capabilities to outlast them?
Well, welcome everyone to Behind the Wheel, a podcast from the Automotive Hall of Fame. I'm Casey Crane, president and CEO of Crane Communications and publisher of Automotive News. We're recording at the Automotive News Congress in Detroit just after General Motors President Mark Reuss received the Automotive Hall of Fame's 2026 Industry Leader Award in the OEM category, presented by Lear Corporation. Mark is here with Lear president and CEO Ray Scott. Mark and Ray, welcome. And Mark, congratulations again.
So, you know, we talked on stage about how automakers decide what they need to own and what they need to partner and what really creates more value. GM and Lear have worked together through many cycles of change. What turns a long-term supplier relationship into a true strategic partnership, especially when cost pressure is high and the technology is changing so quickly? Mark, I'll let you take that one.
Well, I think, you know, those partnerships that we've had with Lear and quite a few others actually as well, but those are good times and bad. You know, this is a everybody says, well, it's a cyclic industry. It is and it isn't because, you know, if you look through that and you look through the peaks and valleys of that and you have a vision together with where we invest, how we invest, you know, I think it really pays off over many years and, you know, yes, we're both going to have ups and downs, but, you know, decision making and being transparent in that decision making both ways and where we invest is absolutely the foundation.
I just think about the same thing, Mark. You forge a relationship not just during the good times, but even more importantly during the bad times. And I think that builds an enormous amount of trust. And what I really respect about General Motors, Mark, and the management team is we have that trust. And I think Mark mentioned it earlier that you have to constantly be thinking about not just where you're at today, but, you know, exceeding expectations long term. And so that only comes with trust and I think that's what I think is truly impressive about General Motors is the trust that they have with their supply base. But that is forged over a long period of time of good times but also really the bad times.
Yeah. But talk a little more about that, Ray. How can that become a competitive advantage and how can that trust change the speed or the quality of a decision?
Well, I think when you have that trust, when you're thinking about specification changes around modular designs, around really pushing back in a respectful way what needs to get done to get to where you need to be. And I think that's only forged through the trust that I talk about because when you're candidly talking about the things that need to happen, we're in an industry right now that we all have to be competitive. We all have to think about technology. We all have to think about innovation. And sometimes that pushes back in an uncomfortable way things that need to change in the industry. And so when you have that trust, you have the relationships where you can go in and open up and say, 'Listen, these specs don't work because this is where the world's going.' And having that ability to go in and speak candidly is really what drives innovation and technology from a supplier's perspective.
And Mark, you know, from your perspective, you guys obviously development cycles have come down a lot. I mean, it used to be seven to 10 years, you're down, you know, much, much shorter than that. But you got to bring the suppliers in so early on this process. What really earns them a seat at the very beginning stage?
12 more exchanges in this transcript
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Reuss, M. (2026, October 8). Behind the Wheel: GM’s Mark Reuss and Lear’s Ray Scott on Partnership, AI, and the Road Ahead [Interview transcript]. Automotive News and Automotive Hall of Fame. CEOInterviews.AI. https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/3015702/
MLA
Mark Reuss. "Behind the Wheel: GM’s Mark Reuss and Lear’s Ray Scott on Partnership, AI, and the Road Ahead." Automotive News and Automotive Hall of Fame, 8 Oct. 2026. Transcript, CEOInterviews.AI, https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/3015702/.
BibTeX
@misc{reuss2026_3015702,
author = {Mark Reuss},
title = {Behind the Wheel: GM’s Mark Reuss and Lear’s Ray Scott on Partnership, AI, and the Road Ahead},
howpublished = {Interview transcript, Automotive News and Automotive Hall of Fame. CEOInterviews.AI},
year = {2026},
month = {oct},
url = {https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/3015702/},
note = {Speaker-attributed transcript with timestamps}
}
