DETROIT — General Motors Co. Chief Executive Fritz Henderson
has resigned, marking the loss of the company’s second CEO this year, a source
told the Detroit Free Press.
GM Chairman Ed Whitacre said in a brief statement to
reporters that he will become interim CEO while a search is made for a
permanent successor.
Whitacre said the board accepted Henderson’s resignation
today. He said Henderson had done a remarkable job.
But “we all agreed that some changes needed to be made
going forward,” Whitacre said.
In a statement, the Obama administration said, “This
decision was made by the board of directors alone. The administration was not
involved in the decision.”
Henderson became GM’s top executive in late March after the
Obama administration asked CEO and Chairman Rick Wagoner to step down.
Henderson worked with the U.S. government to take GM through bankruptcy about
60 days later.
The Obama auto task force briefly considered ousting
Henderson when it asked Wagoner to step down in March. But former task force
chief Steven Rattner told the Bloomberg Washington Summit last month that
finding a replacement for Henderson was considered too difficult at the time,
with a new CEO search likely taking six months.
Henderson remained on as CEO as the automaker emerged from
bankruptcy as a company whose majority owner is the U.S. government. The U.S.
Treasury has pumped around $50 billion into GM to keep it alive.
Gerald Meyers, a professor at the University of Michigan
School of Business, has known Whitacre for years. Meyers described him as a
demanding boss who “takes no prisoners.”
Henderson, Meyers said, “didn’t stand a chance with Ed
as his boss. If it was Jesus Christ, he would have bowled him over.”
Along with all of the changes, Whitacre, the former head of
AT&T, was named chairman.
On Nov. 13, former auto task force chief Steven Rattner
explained the appointment of Henderson to CEO this way:
“We felt that in that period of disruption, to find
somebody new that we would have the confidence, that would be able to succeed was
very problematic and likely a six-month process at the minimum. And we liked
Fritz, and we felt that Fritz had more energy and more drive. … He was being
groomed to be CEO, and he deserved a chance.”
Whitacre and Henderson seemed to clash since the first board
meeting in August. The Whitacre-led board undid a deal to sell GM’s Opel
division, a deal put together under Henderson’s watch. Whitacre has also made
public comments that have seemed contradictory to what Henderson’s plans for
the future entailed.
GM’s board was meeting Monday and Tuesday.
The announcement came on a day when GM announced its fourth
month of year-over-year sales declines since emerging from bankruptcy. October
was the first time GM had seen a sales increase over the previous year in 21
months.
In addition to Opel, several other high-profile business
deals have fallen through in recent months. GM’s deal to sell Saturn to Penske
Automotive Group fell apart at the last minute. A deal to sell Saab fell apart
last week.
Via McClatchy-Tribune News Service.
