Cheri Alexander
Executive Director-Corporate Learning

Cheri Alexander recently joined the University of Michigan Ross School of Business Executive Education Department. She came to the University from General Motors where she most recently was the President of the General Motors University and Executive Director 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.

Ms. Alexander has 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, leadership development, corporate universities, security, crisis management, safety, industrial health engineering, and business process outsourcing.

In addition to the multiple areas inside Personnel/HR that she has worked, Alexander had assignments in Plant Management, Quality, and Engineering. She lived and worked in 4 countries on 3 continents and has been 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 Bachelors Degree in Zoology and Physiological Acoustics from the University of Michigan, as well as, her first Masters in Industrial Health Engineering (Industrial Hygiene). She was selected as an Alfred P. Sloan Fellow and completed her Masters in Science in Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

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 two books, United We Stand, by Wilbur and Weakley, and in Successful Mergers, Acquisitions, and Strategic Alliances by Gancel, Rodgers, and Raynaud.

In addition to her work at GM, Cheri is on the Board of  The Centre for Development and Population Activities (CEDPA) and Chairman of its Governance Committee. CEDPA is an international non-profit dedicated to improving the lives of women and girls in developing regions of the world.  Cheri is also involved with Sister to Sister, an organization focusing on Heart Disease.  She is on the Alumni Leadership Council of the University of Michigan. 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”.  She lives with her husband, an archaeologist and professor, in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Their daughter is an educator and entrepreneur currently studying at Harvard.