Faces of GM

Dan: Trucks and NASA and Robots, Oh My!

May 5, 2010 at 10:11 am

Dan Flores, Manager of Communications for Research and Development, Global Engineering and Advanced Technology

I couldn’t live without: My iPod. I’m a workout fanatic, and my iPod is the one thing that really keeps me motivated. I like to throw on some 70s or 80s classic rock and hit the weights.

Houston, we have a problem: My favorite movies stars are Tom Hanks –  he was awesome in “Forrest Gump” and “Apollo 13” – Robert Dinero and Al Pacino  – “The Godfather” and “The Godfather: Part II”.

History buff: When it comes to books, I like non-fiction. I typically won’t even pick one up unless it’s about military history or World War II.

Ever since I was a kid, I thought of working for GM. I grew up in Flint where both my grandfather and father worked for GM. My grandfather emigrated from Mexico and began working at the Foundry in Flint and my dad worked for GM for more than 40 years as an hourly employee at Buick City manufacturing complex that is no longer in operation. I even married a GM employee. So I guess you could say GM runs in my blood!

I attended Flint Hamady High School, where I became an all-state football player and a state champion in track. I accepted a full-ride scholarship to play football at Central Michigan University. After multiple ankle injuries, I transferred to the University of Michigan-Flint where I graduated with a degree in communications.

I began working for GM in April 1993, setting up shop at the Chevrolet Customer Assistance Center in Troy. After about a year, I was offered a position in Thousand Oaks, CA as a customer assistance manager. I saw this job as the perfect stepping stone to my goal of working in communications. This provided me with the opportunity to work directly with customers and dealers. What better way to sharpen my communication skills and learn more about our customers than to talk and work with them every day?

My move into the communications field came about a year and a half after my time spent in California. There was an internal communications opening in the GM Truck Group in Pontiac, MI and I jumped at the opportunity. Since then, I’ve served as the company spokesman for a variety of business areas including Manufacturing, Labor, product safety recalls, Global Purchasing and Supply Chain and I was heavily involved in the media relations related to the company’s restructuring efforts.  One of my favorite positions was working with the full-size truck team for the launch of the GMT800 program in 1998. It was the first time they had re-engineered a full-size truck in 18 years!

Fast forward 17 years where, I’m now the communications manager for research and development, global engineering and advanced technology. There is a tremendous amount of innovation within this company and it’s my job to highlight it. Recently, I had the chance to work with NASA on announcing the GM/NASA advanced robotic technology partnership, creating Robonaut 2 (R2). R2 will play a key role in helping us develop sensors and systems to support advanced safety technologies for our next-generation of cars and trucks, while also making our plants safer for our manufacturing workforce. It’s not commonly known, but GM was the first automaker to use robotics in the manufacturing of its vehicles.

So I’ve worked with robots and trucks. I guess you could say I’m living every kid’s fantasy. But while it’s pretty great, I’ve had my fair share of life’s difficulties. In 1997, I was diagnosed with a rare liver disease, primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC). Basically, it’s a disorder that causes scarring and inflammation in the bile ducts of the liver. By 2003, it became clear that a liver transplant was my only option. In February of 2005, I became ill and had to go on disability. I nearly died due to internal bleeding. I was on a transplant list at the University of Michigan Hospital, but during one of my visits, a transplant nurse told me I might want to look elsewhere. Wondering where else I was going to find a liver, she informed me of other transplant centers where I would be considered a higher priority. It was then that my family and I moved to Indianapolis to be put on the transplant list at the Indiana University Hospital. We moved on Thursday, May 30, 2005 and by Saturday, June 4, I was wheeled into the operating room. By late July, I had moved back to Michigan and was back to work by September. What a whirlwind!!

This summer will mark five years since my transplant.  GM was so unbelievably supportive and stuck with me every step of the way. It was an experience I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy but I feel fortunate to have gone through it and survived.  Now I look at my wife and kids and realize how lucky I really am.