- BS Mechanical Engineering 1978
Terry J. Woychowski earned a BS degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1978 at Michigan Tech. He took post-graduate studies in the pre-medical program at Wayne State University from 1980-1981 and attended the Global Executive Development Program at the Duke University School Of Business in 1988. In 2003 he received an Honorary Doctorate in Business Management from Indiana Wesleyan University.
After graduation he started at General Motors as an Engineer in Milford and in 1982 he became a Development Engineer for NVH at the Milford Proving Grounds. In 1985 he left GM to become department head and mechanical engineering professor at Pensacola Christian College, FL.
Woychowski returned to General Motors in 1987 as a Development Engineer at the proving grounds in Mesa, AZ and over the next two decades, held a wide range of engineering positions.
In 1998 he was promoted to the position of Executive Director, GM North America Vehicle Systems Engineering and Global Vehicle Chief Engineer, Full Sized Trucks in Warren, MI.
In 2009 Woychowski became the vice-president of GM’s Global Vehicle Program Management, responsible for the flawless execution of every GM product line globally.
Terry is a four-time recipient of the GM Chairman’s Honors, for his leadership in developing and bringing to market the Chevrolet Avalanche and the Hummer H2. He received GM’s North America Achievement of Excellence award for the development of the all-wheel-drive viscous-coupled transfer case in GM’s midsize truck-based vans in 1987. He has patent applications for the design of a parking brake adjustment mechanism and an electronic sphygmomanometer, a blood pressure measuring device that uses electronics instead of gauges.
Woychowski is GM’s key executive liaison with Michigan Tech. As such, he interacts with the University in recruitment, financial grants, curricular development and special projects that are mutually beneficial to both organizations. In addition, Woychowski is a member of the Michigan Tech Industrial Advisory Board.
In 2007, Woychowski was inducted into Tech’s Academy of Mechanical Engineering and Engineering Mechanics. The Academy honors distinguished alumni for excellence and leadership in engineering and civic affairs.
In 2008, Woychowski was named to the Board of Directors for the Engineering Society of Detroit where he has taken a leadership role in utilizing the resources of the ESD to impact the economic challenges that face the engineering community and financial health of the auto industry and the State of Michigan.
Woychowski initiated the formation of a trilateral partnership with GM, Michigan Tech and the Engineering Society of Detroit in 2009 to create and offer a tuition free retraining program for displaced engineers in the southeast Michigan area who wish to "retool" themselves to prepare for job opportunities in the areas of advanced propulsion, hybrids and clean transportation.
His immediate family founded the Woychowski Charitable Foundation, and has sponsored a Senior Design Team at Michigan Tech to design and build a "Human Powered Hammer Mill." He has formed a partnership with the World Hope organization to manufacture these human powered grain processors and to deploy them in sub Saharan Africa to assist local villages in the preparation of their food staple at a much lower cost and with much less expenditure of energy and the diversion of children from important school work as they must today. In July 2009, five of the mills were distributed to several African villages for testing.
He has been active in civic and volunteer work and helped develop and lead the efforts of his church’s involvement in setting up refugee camps in Albania and Kosovo during the conflict in the Balkans. Woychowski has served his community as a paramedic and as a leading elder at his church. He and his wife Rochelle Ann have three children and reside in Commerce Township, MI.
Updated Oct 2009