Profile

Cheri Alexander

Professor, Management and Organizations, Ross School of Business

Bio

Cheri Alexander is a Professor of Practice at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business. She teaches Leadership and Managing Human Capital in the Bachelors and Masters of Business Administration Programs and the Masters of Management Program. In addition, she teaches assorted leadership and HCM topics for Executive Education and supports Engineering students in the Engineering School. Prior to retiring from General Motors, she was the President of the General Motors University and Executive Director of Global HR. In that position, she was the Chief Learning Officer of the company overseeing Global Learning & Performance. Cheri was also part of the company's Global Integration Team that oversaw Global HR Implementation, focusing on the emerging markets. At GM, Ms. Alexander had thirty-three years of successful International Human Resource Management and Labor Relations experience. She has HR expertise in Mergers and Acquisitions, JV formation and execution, talent management, succession planning, leadership development, corporate universities, security, crisis management, safety, industrial health engineering, and business process outsourcing. She was nominated several times and received the Chairman's Award for her work in positive downsizing. In addition to the multiple areas inside HR/HCM in which she has worked, Alexander had assignments in Plant Management, Quality, and Engineering. She lived and worked in 4 countries on 3 continents and was responsible for all HR outside of North America, as the Vice President of HR for International Operations, overseeing and visiting operations in 51 countries. A native of Detroit, Michigan, Cheri received her Bachelor's Degree from the University of Michigan, as well as her first Masters in Industrial Health Engineering. She was selected as an Alfred P. Sloan Fellow and completed her second Masters of Science in Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She is also a Certified Executive Leadership Coach focused on coaching CEOs and those aspiring to be CEOs. Cheri has published work on Noise-Induced Hearing Loss and completed her thesis on the Relocation of Dislocated Automobile Workers. Her work is cited in three books, United We Stand, by Wilbur and Weakley, Successful Mergers, Acquisitions, and Strategic Alliances by Gancel, Rodgers, and Raynaud, and in Road to Power by Colby. In addition to her work, Cheri is on the Boards of the Inforum Center for Leadership. Cheri is dedicated to global education and often speaks on her favorite topics, "Being International" and "Global Superficial Homogenization – What it Means to be Global."