General Motors Co chairman and chief executive Ed Whitacre announced a broad shake-up of the automaker’s senior leadership on Friday, tightening his grip on the company three days after replacing its CEO.
The shake-up suggests that Whitacre, who became chairman of GM when the automaker emerged from a government-funded bankruptcy in July, could remain interim CEO for some time, possibly a year or more, analysts said.
“You wouldn’t shake up the management if you expect a new person to build his own team,” said Logan Robinson, a long-time auto industry executive and professor at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law.
Under the changes, Bob Lutz retained his position as vice chairman and was named a senior adviser of design and product development for Whitacre. Lutz, 77, put off retirement to head marketing for GM after it emerged from bankruptcy.
In addition to the management changes, GM director Stephen Girsky is to serve as a special adviser to Whitacre.
GM named Nick Reilly head of GM Europe to oversee the restructuring of its Opel unit, Mark Reuss, 46, to head North America and Tom Stephens, 61, to run a combined product development and purchasing organization.
“I want to give people more responsibility and authority deeper in the organization and then hold them accountable,” Whitacre said in a statement.
Whitacre was named interim CEO on Tuesday after Fritz Henderson resigned in a split with the board.
Henderson was asked to step down after eight months, with the board looking for a quicker restructuring, the second abrupt departure of a GM CEO this year. His predecessor, Rick Wagoner, was forced out in March by the administration of US President Barack Obama.
The latest management changes gave some of GM’s younger executives more control.
“If you’re going to stay long-term, you’re going to choose the team you want,” Robinson said. “It’s what we see in the latest round of changes.”
IHS Global Insight analyst John Wolkonowicz said he expected Whitacre to remain CEO until after an initial public stock offering, in part, to prevent US government pay restrictions from hampering the search.
“What he is trying to say is ‘we’ve got to move fast and we’ve got to move efficiently and we have to forget the way GM used to do it,’” Wolkonowicz said.
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