General Motors has hired a new head of its workplace safety.

On Friday, GM said Marcos Purty, 50, will replace Jim Glynn as the vice president of Global Workplace Safety effective on Wednesday. Glynn, 64, is retiring after 40 years with GM.

Purty is returning to GM from Amazon where he was vice president of North America Fulfilment, Amazon Robotics Sortable Operations for the past 18 months. Purty spent the first 25 years of his career with GM starting at the former Pontiac Assembly plant in 1994.

Purty will report to CEO Mary Barra and report indirectly to Gerald Johnson, executive vice president of Global Manufacturing and Sustainability.

“Marcos’ global experience across our manufacturing operations, engineering and launch teams, as well as his external experience, position him well to continue the company’s safety transformation," Barra said.

The job is a big one, said GM spokesman Dan Flores, who called safety "the highest priority at GM."

"That team is focused on enhancing workplace safety across the company" which includes all of GM's manufacturing sites, headquarters, engineering and other facilities, Flores said.

In GM's 2021 sustainability report, it showed that in 2021 there were two work-related incidents that resulted in death of either an employee or a contractor, up from one in 2020. The report showed there were 2.15 million work hours lost last year to employee illness compared with 1.87 million in 2020.

Barra thanked Glynn for his service, saying he is responsible for safety improvements over the years. She credited him for building "a strong leadership foundation in both operations and engineering."

Purty, who has a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Florida A&M University and an MBA from the University of Southern California, held a variety of leadership roles across GM before going to Amazon, including some international jobs.

He held management jobs at Pontiac Assembly and Fort Wayne Assembly in Indiana too. In 2016, he was the executive director at Lansing Delta Township Assembly, where GM builds the Buick Enclave and Chevrolet Traverse midsize SUVs.

In his last assignment at GM, as executive director of Global Manufacturing Strategy and Planning, Purty helped direct ongoing transformation to sell all-electric vehicles by 2035, GM said in a release.

In that role Purty "directed GM Manufacturing’s footprint in cost and profitability, spearheaded new product allocation to increase manufacturing utilization," and he helped to develop GM's plan for EVs and goal to be a carbon neutral company by 2040.

Glynn worked at eight GM plants across various operations, as well as holding leadership roles at Flint Assembly, Flint Stamping and Grand Blanc Stamping.

He served as executive director of GM's Global Manufacturing Engineering and Program Management and manufacturing manager for several U.S. plants and operations in Mexico and Canada. In 2013, Glynn was appointed vice president of Labor Relations, a job he held for three years before taking on a variety of international assignments.

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Contact Jamie L. LaReau: 313-222-2149 or jlareau@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @jlareauan. Read more on General Motors and sign up for our autos newsletter. Become a subscriber.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: GM hires Amazon executive Marcos Purty as Jim Glynn retires