OnStar's Frederick H. Cooke's Retires
FOR RELEASE: November 14, 2001OnStar: Cooke To Retire, Butler Named As Vice President Of Commercial Development
Troy, Mich. - OnStar Corp. announced today Frederick H. Cooke's retirement as vice president in charge of commercial development, marking the end of a distinguished five-year career with OnStar and a 38-year career with General Motors.
In addition, Don Butler has been named vice president of OnStar commercial development, effective January 1, 2002. In his new role, he will be responsible for the development of key business relationships critical to sustaining the OnStar business. Butler had been responsible for OnStar Virtual Advisor platform, OnStar's location-enabled in-vehicle voice portal. As part of these moves, OnStar Virtual Advisor will now become part of OnStar Wireless Business, led by Rodney Egdorf.
Cooke joined GM in 1963 at Allison Division in Indianapolis before moving to the corporate audit staff in Detroit, Michigan. He held a variety of financial positions including assignments with the GM Treasurer's Office and Comptrollers Staff. Cooke moved to the former GM Fisher Guide Division in Indiana and held several positions including divisional comptroller, product director, and general director of Marketing and Planning. He later moved to Warren, Mich., as general director of North American Operations programs for Delphi Interiors Systems.
In 1996, Cooke joined OnStar as executive director of commercial development. As one of the early employees of the company, Cooke played a significant role in the development and growth of OnStar. He was responsible for reaching groundbreaking agreements with key customers, including Audi, Subaru, Acura and Lexus. Additionally, his commercial development group was responsible for the development of business agreements with content providers, like Verizon Wireless, Fidelity Investments, Walt Disney Interactive Group, The Wall Street Journal Online, as well as Virtual Advisor content providers.
"Fred Cooke has brought a wealth of talent and knowledge to OnStar," said Chet Huber, OnStar president. "I have no doubt that our success today is a result of the leadership and direction Fred has contributed over the last five years and he will be missed by the entire company."
Cooke will stay at OnStar as a consultant until April 2002.
Butler began his General Motors career as a college co-op student in 1981 at Pontiac Engineering. He has held multiple positions in his career with GM, including design engineer for the Corvette Electrical Systems Group; systems engineer for Advanced Vehicle Engineering; market analyst for GM Marketing and Product Planning; market planner of the Grand Am; brand-planning manager of the Grand Am; manufacturing systems manager at Lansing Auto Division (LAD); assistant brand manager-product for the Grand Am; and prior to joining OnStar he was Aztek brand manager.
Butler received his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from GMI in 1986 and his MBA from Harvard Business School in 1990.
"Don's background and knowledge of the business arena will be critical to the continued growth of OnStar," said Huber. "We are fortunate to have someone with his capabilities and skills to succeed Fred."