AM General's chiefs — a South Bend seat, a Mishawaka works

the company formed 1971 · the chiefs, 1971 – the present

The boundary, stated: AM General is headquartered in South Bend and builds in Mishawaka; its corporate course is the AM General section's whole, and the South Bend build prints its ownership as a boundary. It stands in this section because the brief of this class names its chiefs expressly, and because the works those chiefs ran is Mishawaka's largest surviving works. The company's founder, in the corporate sense, was a parent: American Motors took over the defense and government-products business on 31 March 1971, and the Detroit Free Press announcement of 2 April 1971 named the new AM General Corporation's directors — Roy D. Chapin Jr., AMC president William V. Luneburg, and John C. Secrest — and its first president.

The first president, and the long middle: Cruse W. Moss, who had run the same business for Kaiser-Jeep, headed the General Products Division and became AM General's president at its formation. The succession from Moss through the LTV and Renco years is not documented chief by chief in the record reached; its documented anchor is James A. Armour, who led AM General from 1988, in the South Bend Tribune's account, and stood as its chairman into the 2010s. Retired General Paul J. Kern became president and chief operating officer on 1 August 2008, announced to succeed Armour as chief executive by the end of 2009; Charles M. Hall, a former General Dynamics group executive, then joined as president and chief executive officer, with Armour — who had led the company since 1988 — passing the chief executive's duties to him and continuing as chairman, on the Tribune's January 2011 account. The Indiana Court of Appeals' later record of Armour's employment case carries him as the company's president, chief executive, and chairman under his 2007 agreement, retiring on or about 2 January 2012. The two accounts are printed together rather than reconciled: the titles in the court record are the contract's, the handover in the Tribune's is the announcement's, and the precise division of the chief executive's office in 2011–12 is the record's own untidiness.

The modern line, dated: Hall led the company five years, on the defense press's account of his retirement. Andy Hove, formerly president and chief executive of HDT Global, succeeded him as president and CEO effective early 2016, announced 8 December 2015. James Cannon, formerly chief executive of FLIR Systems, was appointed on 20 September 2021 — Hove's last day — and served until John Chadbourne, the company's chief operating officer and a retired Army colonel who had joined in July 2018, was named president and chief executive on 13 March 2026, effective 27 March 2026, on the company's own release. Chadbourne is the company's chief as this section is written in November 2026 — his statement of 26 June 2026 on the JLTV A2 program stands in the AM General section. No salary, compensation, or personal figure for any of these living or recent chiefs is printed here; the Armour litigation is cited for its titles and dates only.

Sources:

1. AM General — "AM General is formed" (the 31 March 1971 takeover; the 2 April 1971 announcement naming Chapin, Luneburg, and Secrest as directors and Cruse W. Moss as president; Moss's Kaiser-Jeep course) and the JLTV record (chief executive John Chadbourne's statement of 26 June 2026).
2. Manufacturing.net (23 July 2008) — Kern to replace Armour as president effective 1 August 2008, Armour remaining president and chief executive, Kern to take the chief executive's office by the end of 2009, Armour continuing as chairman through 2011.
3. South Bend Tribune, as carried in the trade record of January 2011 — Charles M. Hall joining as president and chief executive officer; Armour, who had led AM General since 1988, continuing as chairman and passing the chief executive's duties to Hall.
4. AM General, LLC v. James A. Armour, Indiana Court of Appeals (20 March 2015) — Armour as former president, CEO, and chairman under his employment agreement of 14 November 2007, retired on or about 2 January 2012; cited for titles and dates only.
5. Defense News and Defense Daily (8 December 2015) — Hove tapped to succeed Hall, retiring after five years, effective early 2016; Michiana Business News (23 September 2021) — Cannon appointed 20 September 2021, Hove's last day; AM General, company release (13 March 2026) — Chadbourne named president and CEO effective 27 March 2026, succeeding Cannon.