Wagoner Is Out At GM

3 Comments 29 March 2009

By Brendan Moore

03.29.2009

rick-wagoner Rick Wagoner, CEO of General Motors, will resign as part of the conditional approval for further federal aid for the struggling company.

Automotive News, Reuters and The Wall Street Journal are all reporting that Wagoner’s departure is imminent and that he was asked to leave as one of the many preconditions Washington wants in order to release more federal funds for GM’s restructuring.

General Motors has asked for approximately $30 billion USD in aid from the government, and has already received $13.4 billion of the total. The remaining $16.4 billion has been requested by GM, and a decision has been promised from the Treasury by March 31. GM almost ran out of money at the end of 2008 before it received the first loan.

Wagoner has been CEO of GM for eight years.

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Your Comments

3 Comments so far

Stéphane Dumas says:

March 29, 2009 at 19:14

Technically it suppose to be Fritz Henderson who might replace him as CEO (he currently president) but then what if Obama required to use one of his men or an outsider like Alan Mullaly (Ford) or Bob Nardelli (Chrysler)? Although some would had wished for Steve Jobs from Apple and there was once an older rumor of having Carlos Ghosn at the head http://www.autospies.com/news/Carlos-Ghosn-and-Jack-Welch-could-be-future-GM-leaders-38631/ If only Roger Penske was a couple of years younger….
Chris says:

March 29, 2009 at 21:12

GM needs a turnaround CEO for its next one. Promoting from within hasn’t worked so well for them to this point, and it sends precisely the wrong message right now (that message being “business as usual.”)

Mulally’s done pretty well so far for Ford, but I’d call Nardelli’s tenure a mixed bag at best.
fat farmer says:

March 31, 2009 at 20:34

He was a sacrifice to the gods (the gods of government, that is). Somebody had to be the guy to fall on his sword, so Wagoner was the short straw, I guess.

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