On the heels of announcing a shake-up of its top marketing brass today, General Motors announced late today that OnStar has a new president as of Feb. 1, too.  Wireless veteran Linda Marshall has replaced Chris Preuss. The former GM top spokesman who took over OnStar 11 months ago will leave GM. Drive On friend Chrissie Thompson of the Detroit Free Press reports here that Marshal was GM's first Dan Akerson-era executive hire (in November to be OnStar's head of global strategy and development). She had worked with the GM CEO when he was the boss at Nextel.  GM has been beefing up OnStar's features and capability under Preuss, pushing hard to be more competitive with Ford's voice-controlled Microsoft Sync and other automakers' high-tech infotainment systems. OnStar, which built its image on safety, is being developed into a more integrated in-car communications and entertainment system, including with more phone capabilities, Wi-Fi and voice control.  Also, at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this month, GM showed a complete OnStar system housed in a rear-view mirror -- to be sold at Best Buy -- that owners of rival brands could install in their vehicles.  Before coming to GM, Marshall was COO of a Revol Wireless, an Ohio-based wireless service and also held executive positions at Sprint Nextel and Verizon Wireless, according to GM.  See photos of: Ford Motor Company  To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor  . For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to  . Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to
GM exec shuffle cont'd: New chief for growing OnStar  - Drive On: A conversation about the cars and trucks we drive - USATODAY.com