Fritz Henderson Resigns as GM CEO

3 Comments 01 December 2009

By Brendan Moore

12.01.2009

Fritz Henderson, the CEO of General Motors, and the man who replaced Rick Wagoner earlier this year as the head of General Motors in order to lead GM through bankruptcy, has tendered his resignation.

Edward Whitacre, the chairman of GM, will replace Henderson on an interim basis until a replacement can be hired. Whitacre stated that the search for a new chief executive will commence immediately.

GM PRESS RELEASE: Statement from Chairman Ed Whitacre

At its monthly meeting in Detroit today, the General Motors Board of Directors accepted the resignation of Fritz Henderson as Director, President and CEO of the company.

Fritz has done a remarkable job in leading the company through an unprecedented period of challenge and change. While momentum has been building over the past several months, all involved agree that changes needed to be made. To this end, I have taken over the role of Chairman and CEO while an international search for a new president and CEO begins immediately. With these new duties, I will begin working in the Renaissance Center headquarters on a daily basis. The leadership team – many who are with me today – are united and committed to the task at hand.

I want to assure all of our employees, dealers, suppliers, union partners and most of all, our customers, that GM’s daily business operations will continue as normal. I remain more convinced than ever that our company is on the right path and that we will continue to be a leader in offering the worldwide buying public the highest quality, highest value cars and trucks. We now need to accelerate our progress toward that goal, which will also mean a return to profitability and repaying the American and Canadian tax payers as soon as possible.

In closing, I want to once again thank Fritz Henderson for his years of leadership and service to General Motors; we’re grateful for his many contributions. I look forward to working with the entire GM team as we now begin the next chapter of this great company.

« Chairman Says Tata Will Build Hybrid Nano

Ford Debuts Fiesta in North America »

Your Comments

3 Comments so far

Jesse says:

December 1, 2009 at 18:19

Fritzi, we hardly knew ye.

More rats will jump from this sinking ship.
Stéphane Dumas says:

December 1, 2009 at 18:36

Let’s see which guy will be GM next CEO: Bob Lutz? Or even Carlos Ghosn?
Beat-Nick says:

December 1, 2009 at 19:59

they should probably hire a guy from an airplane manufacturer.

Share your view

What we do

We love cars and the car business, no matter where that takes us - United States, Japan, Germany, France, China, Brazil, Australia, India, the U.K, etc. You get the idea. No subscription fees, no sign-up, no sign-in - all you have to do is just show up and start reading. We provide both opinion and information. We have two writers in the EU, one in Asia, and five in the U.S. We focus on the United States (because we're here), but we want our readers to have the benefit of seeing a global picture regarding automotive products and industry. We hope you enjoy the site.