Three days after Fritz Henderson resigned as chief executive of General Motors, a second round of management changes has been announced at the troubled automaker. Among them: Vice Chairman Bob Lutz will return to a role designing new products, rather than heading up marketing. Lutz filled in for Henderson two days ago at the L.A. Auto Show.
These are the other personnel changes:
• Mark Reuss will be president of GM’s North American operations
• Susan Docherty will oversee sales, services and marketing
• Nick Reilly will become GM Europe’s president
• Tim Lee will succeed Reilly as international chief
According to a report in today’s Wall Street Journal, CEO Ed Whitacre “drew up the new management blueprint in a matter of four hours,” adding that the plan “is a reflection of Whitacre’s desire that younger and stronger leaders take on more prominent roles at the 101-year-old auto maker.”
The WSJ article quotes a source who says a similar management shakeup would have beena two-month process at the old GM. Might Whitacre actually be cutting through some of GM’s red tape?
I agree and I never mentioned socialism
Bottom line no one can move through BK like these cases are, it should be interesting down the road when some lawyers get creative with companies they represent and state this as case law when all is said and done
Sounds like the management appointments had just slightly more planning involved than did Fritz’s departure. Is Reuss related to the previous Reuss in GM management…. anyone know? Lloyd Reuss was GM President in the early 1990’s and a Director at some point.
The skinny on some of these execs:
Mark Reuss is the son of ex GM Chairman and former Buick Engineer Lloyd Reuss – who’s 1980’s tenure as boss is not well regarded by anyone, but who did a fair job at Buick during the sixties and seventies. GM does not seem eager to highlight the connection, there’s very little mention of the relationship between the Reusses.
Susan Docherty is a good manager with a good knowledge of PR and the public – she’s bounced around this past year due to the cessation of Pontiac, but she knows the product and was doing good things for Pontiac-GMC before the world exploded.
Nick Reilly is a career GM guy who toiled in some obscure divisions at the beginning of his career (Allison, GM Belgium/Ranger, Vauxhall). He helped transform the remains of Daewoo into GM-Daewoo beginning in 2002. Since what was Daewoo is now building fairly decent cars (as opposed to what it built under its old management), he deserves some credit for that.
Tim Lee I don’t know much about, however he’s also a career GM guy who came up from being a plant floor manager.
Bob Lutz needs no introduction, although it is worth noting that he has a stronger silent partner in his new job – Ed Welburn, a quiet, reserved guy who has had a huge hand in reforming the GM product line and increasing differentiation between models – an area where GM was weak when Welburn was coming up through the ranks in the 80’s. As Lutz is nearing 80, Welburn is a more important long-term actor.