- Todd Wasserman

After six weeks at Nissan, former Hyundai lead marketer Joel Ewanick has landed at General Motors, where he's replacing Susan Docherty as vp of U.S. marketing.

"Joel is highly regarded in industry and marketing circles and his track record speaks for itself," said Mark Reuss, president of GM North America, in a written statement. "We are very pleased to have his marketing acumen, creative leadership and energy at GM at this critical time."

In his new post, Ewanick will have responsibility for improving the positioning of the Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac brands and consumer consideration of GM vehicles in the U.S. Those brands spent about $1.25 billion combined last year in major measured domestic media, per Nielsen. All told, GM spent approximately $1.65 billion last year on ads.

There has been considerable flux on the GM agency roster, with GM shifting its Chevy business to Publicis from Campbell-Ewald last month and Cadillac picking Bartle Bogle Hegarty as its lead shop in January after several years with Modernsita!

Ewanick, Brandweek's Grand Marketer of the Year for 2009, left Hyundai in March.

A rep for Nissan said the company was surprised by the move, but "we wish him the best" and "this was certainly a disappointment." No successor has been named at that company yet.