DETROIT — Rory Harvey, Cadillac’s next global boss, will continue the plan he plotted out with departing chief Steve Carlisle, but at higher speed.

Harvey, vice president of Cadillac North America sales, service and marketing, has been Carlisle’s right-hand man for the past two years. They took their posts at Cadillac within a month of each other in early 2018.

“Now is the opportunity to accelerate,” Harvey told Automotive News.

Cadillac boasts the luxury segment’s newest lineup as it launches a new vehicle about every six months for three years, starting in 2019. It debuted a redesigned version of the iconic Escalade SUV in February, and the brand will lead General Motors’ charge into electric vehicles and the expansion of Super Cruise, GM’s driver-assist technology.

Cadillac dealer profitability, customer satisfaction, vehicle quality and sales effectiveness also have improved over the past two years, Harvey said.

“There has been a plan that we have been working toward as a Cadillac team … that we developed over a significant period of time. Many of those exciting things are a result of that plan,” he said. “We’ve absolutely got the ability to put our foot on the accelerator pedal and take full advantage.”

Harvey, 52, has the energy and charisma to “rally the broader team, including the dealers, to the cause,” said Carlisle, who is being promoted to president of GM North America as of Sept. 1.

The executive changes bring “an enormous opportunity for us to get Cadillac to an entirely different level,” Carlisle said.

Before his current post at Cadillac, Harvey was chairman and managing director of Vauxhall Motors in the United Kingdom. In more than three decades with GM, he has held a variety of positions in Europe and the Middle East.

From 2018 until the pandemic made traveling inadvisable, Harvey spent much of his time visiting dealers.

“He’s visible. There’s no doubt in my mind that if I text him, within an hour he’d write back. He’s a very personable guy,” said Howard Drake, a Cadillac dealer in Los Angeles.

This year, Cadillac has hosted more than 20 meetings and calls with its dealers. More than 1,300 dealers joined the first virtual meeting during the pandemic, Harvey said.

“When times are tough, you need to communicate, communicate, communicate,” he said. “We need a healthy, profitable dealer network to be able to maximize our collective success. If we work with their input as well as our input, inevitably we’re going to come up with solutions that are better.”