Lawrence D. Burns is the former corporate vice president of
Research and Development
Research and development (R&D or R+D), known in some countries as OKB, experiment and design, is the set of innovative activities undertaken by corporations or governments in developing new services or products. R&D constitutes the first stage ...
for
General Motors
General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. The company is most known for owning and manufacturing f ...
. Burns oversaw GM's advanced technology, innovation programs, and corporate strategy. He was a member of GM's Automotive Strategy Board and Automotive Product Board. Within GM, he personally championed vehicle electrification, “connected” vehicles, fuel cells, bio-fuels, advanced batteries, autonomous driving, and a series of innovative concept vehicles. He has been a leading advocate for design and technology innovation focused on the total customer experience and the application of operations research before his retirement in 2009. He is the author of ''Autonomy: The Quest to Build the Driverless Car—And How It Will Reshape Our World'' and a co-author of ''Reinventing the Automobile: Personal Urban Mobility for the 21st Century''.
Burns was invited to speak at the 2005
TED Conference.
In 2011, Burns was elected a member of the
National Academy of Engineering
The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American Nonprofit organization, nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. It is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), along with the National Academ ...
for leadership and technical contributions to automotive technologies.
Burns advises organizations on the future of mobility, logistics, manufacturing, energy and innovation. His clients include
Waymo (previously Google Self-Driving Cars),
Peloton Technology and Kitson & Partners.
References
External links
General Motors*
*
TED Talks: Larry Burns on the future of cars(TED2005)
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)
American businesspeople
University of Michigan faculty
University of Michigan alumni
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