DETROIT – General Motors' CEO Frederick "Fritz" Henderson has resigned after eight turbulent months as head of the largest U.S. automaker. The company said Tuesday that Chairman Ed Whitacre Jr. will serve as interim CEO. The company plans an international search for a new president and chief executive.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091201/...gm_ceo_resigns

 

I vote for ChevyMgr for the position, And i'm not joking !

 

Many Obama appointees will abandon ship since it started sinking in January 09. They'll let the captain go down.

 

Yea cause that is going to get GM "fast Paced" like the board wants. Kinda hard to make a Sharp change when your in the middle of a Recession!

Lets see how long Mr AT&T will stick around.

 

Yeah I saw that this afternoon on NPR (via Facebook)

Not saying much for GM.... Either too much work or not going to happen...

 

Personnel Announcements
Susan Docherty
12/17/2009



As we end our last full week of work for 2009, I want to take this opportunity to thank you for your contributions and dedication to our customers in what has been the most challenging year in GM’s history. I’m proud to be leading this talented team, and confident that we’ll have more momentum and more wins in 2010. In the meantime, I’d like to give you an update on two topics – dealer network legislation, and how we’re aligning our Sales, Service and Marketing team to support you.

First, let me address the legislation approved by the Senate over the weekend and now waiting for President Obama’s signature. We continue to analyze the bill. All of us recognize how important a strong, competitive and profitable dealer network is to our business plan. This bill has significant implications to our plans, so we're going to consider our next steps very carefully. When we have more to communicate, we’ll reach out to you directly.

Next, we have realigned the sales, service and marketing staffs to be more customer and dealer focused. We’ve been very clear that the new GM is laser-focused on strengthening the Chevy, Buick, GMC and Cadillac brands. With the new structure, we’re increasing that focus to include the OnStar, Goodwrench, and ACDelco brands; in short, everything that touches the consumer. This will allow us to better drive accountability and results.

Each vehicle brand will be led by a General Manager reporting to me.

· Chevrolet - As announced last week, Chevrolet will be led by Jim Campbell. Kurt McNeil continues as General Sales Manager and will report to Jim.

· Buick GMC - I’m pleased to announce that Brian Sweeney is named General Manager of Buick GMC, and Jennifer Costabile is named general sales manager - Buick GMC, and will report to Brian. Both assignments are effective immediately.

· Cadillac – Bryan Nesbitt remains General Manager of Cadillac. As part of the realignment, Ed Peper in his role as general sales manager will now report to Bryan.

The following leaders also report directly to me:
· GM SPO - Kevin Williams remains vice president and general manager – GM Service & Parts Operations.
· OnStar – Walt Dorfstatter remains president of OnStar.
· Sales Operations - Jim Bunnell continues in his role as general manager – Sales Operations, including dealer network, field operations, industry-dealer affairs, regional business operations and order fulfillment. Jim also will continue to lead Fleet and Commercial Operations until a replacement for Jim Campbell is named.
· Retail Sales Support - Steve Hill continues in his role as general manager – Retail Sales Support, including retail initiatives, local advertising/marketing/training, Essential Brand Elements and Standards for Excellence Programs, consumer websites and customer communications. Julie Heisel will report to Steve in her key role as director, Customer Lifecycle Management.
· Marketing Strategy Support - Jay Spenchian continues in his role as executive director – Marketing Strategy Support Group.

We have a lot of work to do as a team to implement our structural changes… but there will be no disruption in our support for you and your business. I need you to keep doing what you do best, and that’s selling GM cars, crossovers and trucks. We have momentum now with the strong demand for our launch products and the 60-day guarantee, but we have to turn up the dial to ensure that December results are strong. Ending 2009 with a year-over-year sales and market share increase will send an important signal to everyone that our viability plan is on track.

I know we can count on your ongoing support as we strengthen our brands and seek innovative solutions to market, sell and service great vehicles.

Susan

---------------------------
My Note: Brian Nesbitt designed the HHR and when he was at Chrysler he designed the PT Cruiser. Probably a great choice for Cadillac General Manager

 

I wish Nesbitt was in charge of Chevrolet! He can do all the cool Caddy's he wants, but I'll never be able to afford them!!!

 

Please don't read too much into this.

Fritz was going to be gone next year anyway and was no seceret in the industry. GM has many changes yet to go through and he was one on the to do list.

The reason they took him out is he was fighting the board on selling Opel when the board and everyone else wanted to keep them. Fritz also was not working well with product planners as pointed out how he and Lutz clashed often in August on future products.

Fritz was a nice guy and go good GM old school die hard but that is just not fitting in. Changes at GM need to come at a faster pace and he just was not of that frame of mind.

New people like Mark Reuss are very product based people and with their engineering background will compliment the planning Lutz has for GM.

Note in the next year GM will have less people at the top so more will go. They are very top heavy and it just slows things down. The youth will start to take over.

I see Nebitt in time at the lead of the design center someday when Ed Welborn retires. Ed is doing a great job and Brian is more cut out for that than to just lead Chevy. Cadillac is only a stop on the road to the top as he is very well thought of.

You will not believe what GM will do in the next 3-5 years. Product wise they will be at the top. The hard part is to convince the public to give them a chance and the economy to recover. These are two things out of their control and only time will tell if they will catch a break.

I am still out on Ed. Many do not like him but at this point he looks to be putting a lot of very talented people in the right places. I just hope he let them do what they can as he is not a car man. His place is only to find a way to get it done and pay for it.

Note FWD, AWD and RWD all have a big part in most of GM's new cars. Look for a Chevy SS based on the G8 in 2012 a year after the larger Caprice Police package arrives. Performance on all levels will be with us too. Buick has a Regal coming with a Turbo 325 Hp V6 and AWD. We also will get the Z28 soon with over 500 HP.