By Laryssa Hulcio and Stephen Harber, talent marketing

Bringing a team mindset from the baseball field to the workplace, Clayton Gelfand’s career path has been anything but conventional.

A lawyer turned business strategist, Gelfand realized soon after graduating from Michigan State’s law school and passing the Illinois bar exam that his true calling wasn’t in courtrooms, but behind the wheel. Gelfand was inspired by GM Chair and CEO Mary Barra’s leadership and driven by a team-first mindset. As of today, he has spent the past four years shaping the future of mobility — one bold idea at a time.

We sat down with Gelfand to learn more about his career at GM.

How did your road to GM start?

I went to California State University in Chico, where I played Division II college baseball. I took the LSAT, and got into Michigan State, but it wasn’t what I expected.

How so?

Thanks to my baseball experience, I have a team-oriented background. I found the law school environment to be overly competitive. I switched to a joint Juris Doctorate-MBA program. It was the best decision I've ever made. During my second summer of grad school, I interned at GM.

Why GM?

When I was in law school, we had an assignment where we could study either the Boeing crisis or GM’s ignition switch recalls - and I chose the latter. I was so impressed with Mary Barra's leadership during the recalls, and it motivated me to apply for an internship. She was a leader I wanted to learn from.  

Tell us more about your GM journey.

I’ve been here for four years in three different roles. I started as an intern for global connected services brand marketing, and I stayed with the same team as an associate global brand marketing manager for infotainment products. I led customer-facing marketing efforts for products like Google, Amazon, Hulu, Spotify, and more – spearheading marketing campaigns with platforms like Amazon Alexa Built-in.

Then you expanded outside of marketing.

I took a strategy role as the OnStar digital global planning and strategy analyst. I worked on the early stages of ideas we integrated into our business strategy, then helped determine if we’d develop them or not based on customer needs.

A mentor at GM once told me: you can either be a mile wide and an inch deep, or an inch wide and a mile deep. I don't want to be just a marketer - I want to learn more about the business.

What did you like about OnStar?

OnStar for me was like being at a tech startup within an auto company. I got to work with some of the biggest tech brands in the world. After that, I took on my current role as sales lead for digital emerging products, where I support the sales strategy for our new digital features.

What do you love about GM?

I love working for Mary Barra. She started as an intern and has been here for over 40 years. That sets a precedent for what your career at GM can be – and turn into – if you work hard, learn new things, and push the limits. GM gives you the opportunity to explore.

How do you innovate in infotainment?

It's about understanding customer needs, market dynamics, and the competition. It’s important to realize our customers are not the same as our competitors’. In my previous role, I analyzed customer data to determine which needs can be solved by features that we could develop and innovate on.

What is your biggest accomplishment so far at GM?

I recently led a cross-functional pilot using point-of-sale materials at dealerships to boost OnStar activations among used vehicle buyers. In three months, participating dealers saw a 3% lift over the national average. It was a high-impact, collaborative project that reshaped how we drive customer action.

Nice work.

It was empowering. I thought, “Wow, I just impacted a massive business. My work actually matters.”

I learned that if you have a good idea at GM – and an actionable plan – the company can run with it. 

What’s your advice for anyone working at GM?

Take risks, fail fast, learn, and build on it. Innovation and failure go hand in hand. If you're not trying new things and not failing forward, you’re not innovating.

How will GM drive the future of mobility?

GM has played a significant role since the beginning of vehicles and will continue to do so through strategic investments in EV, autonomous driving, and technology. Those three things set us up for success in the future and set the precedent for what every other company will aim for.

To explore career opportunities at GM, visit careers.gm.com.

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