General Motors Co (GM) chief executive Fritz Henderson abruptly resigned on Tuesday, after the company’s board decided the automaker needed to push its restructuring faster under new leadership.
Henderson was asked by the board to step down at a meeting in Detroit after being on the job for just eight months, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter.
GM chairman Ed Whitacre, 68, will become interim chief executive as the automaker begins an immediate search for a replacement, the company said.
The announcement of Henderson’s sudden departure underscored the tough oversight being exerted by a slate of new GM directors led by Whitacre and selected by the automaker’s majority shareholder, the US Treasury.
Henderson, 51, became CEO in March after his predecessor, Rick Wagoner, was forced out by the administration of US President Barack Obama as part of a government-funded restructuring of GM.
“The board decided — and Fritz agreed — that given where we are, it was time to make some changes,” GM spokesman Chris Preuss said at a hastily arranged news conference.
Whitacre, a former AT&T CEO, became chairman of GM in July as part of a new board vetted by the US Treasury and intended to safeguard the government’s US$50 billion investment in the automaker.
The US government has a 60 percent common equity stake in GM with US$10 billion in debt and perpetual preferred shares, but the Obama administration has repeatedly said it is leaving oversight of the firm to Whitacre and the board.
“This decision was made by the board of directors alone. The administration was not involved in the decision,” a White House spokeswoman said.
Whitacre, who became the public face of GM in its first ad campaign after bankruptcy, appeared briefly before reporters at GM’s headquarters in Detroit but did not take questions on why the board had chosen to part ways with Henderson.
“While momentum has been building over the past several months, all involved agree that changes needed to be made,” Whitacre said.
Whitacre said he knew nothing about the auto industry when he became GM chairman, has surprised GM insiders by making unannounced plant visits and putting blunt questions to workers at all levels.
With his move to become GM’s acting CEO, all three US automakers are now headed by outsiders to Detroit.
Ford Motor Co chief executive Alan Mulally left Boeing Co in 2006. Chrysler is now run by Fiat SpA CEO Sergio Marchionne.
Henderson, a career GM executive, had vowed when he became CEO to reform the slow-moving culture that contributed to the automaker’s collapse. But GM’s faltering efforts to sell off its laggard brands dominated Henderson’s short tenure and tarnished his reputation as a dealmaker and raised questions about the company’s strategy.
First, Detroit-based dealership group Penske Automotive Group pulled out of a deal that would have had it acquire GM’s Saturn brand in late September.
Then last month, GM’s board shifted course on a planned sale of the company’s European Opel unit, rejecting a deal that Henderson had backed and helped broker.
In the most recent setback, Swedish luxury car builder Koenigsegg dropped a planned acquisition of GM’s Saab brand.
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