GM Announces Leadership Appointments and Retirements

DETROIT July 15, 2009; General Motors Company today announced the following leadership-appointments and retirements:

Michael Millikin, 60, currently associate general counsel, will be named vice president and general counsel, effective July 20. Millikin will replace Bob Osborne, 54, currently group vice president and general counsel, who will be leaving GM to return to the private practice of law. Millikin joined the GM legal staff in 1977. He has held a variety of positions in GM North America, GM Europe and the former GM International Operations. He is currently a member of the GM DAT board of directors and formerly was a member of the Adam Opel supervisory board. Millikin will report to GM president and CEO Fritz Henderson.

Osborne joined GM in 2006, and was a key leader and advisor as GM negotiated a series of federal loans, then successfully executed a complex 363 sale and emergence from bankruptcy in a brief period of time. With the new GM successfully launched, Osborne is now making a move he had considered for some time, but had deferred while GM was in bankruptcy.

Alan Taub, 54, currently executive director, research and development, will become vice president, research and development, effective October 1. Taub will replace Larry Burns, 58, currently vice president, research and development and strategic planning. GM also is announcing the integration of the global research and development organization into global product development, effective immediately. This move represents another important step in GM's reinvention into a leaner, more efficient, more agile company, and it aligns GM's technology groups into an integrated team.

Taub joined GM research and development in 2001, and currently oversees GM's seven science laboratories in the U.S., Germany, China, India, and Israel, and leads GM's advanced technology work and global technology collaboration. In his new role, Taub will report to Tom Stephens, GM vice chairman, global product development.

Burns, who has elected to retire after 40 years of distinguished service with GM, has been a major advocate within the industry for the reinvention of the automobile and the diversification of transportation energy. At GM, he has personally championed the electrification of the vehicle, connected vehicle technology, fuel cells, and a series of innovative advanced technology concept vehicles.

Chris Preuss, currently vice president, GME communications and global product communications, will replace Steve Harris as vice president, communications, effective October 1. He will report to GM vice chairman Bob Lutz. Preuss, 43, joined GM in 1998 as director of Cadillac communications, and has also directed GM communications for public policy, global products and brands, and product development.

Harris, 63, is retiring after a public relations career of more than 40 years. He rejoined GM in 2006, and has led communications through a period that saw rapid global growth, the rise of social media, major changes in technology, economic turmoil, and the reinvention of General Motors.

"I'd like to congratulate Michael, Alan and Chris on their new positions, and personally thank Bob, Larry and Steve for their leadership during an extraordinary period in GM's history," said Fritz Henderson, GM president and CEO. "These GM leaders not only guided the company through a financial crisis and the successful creation of a new GM, but they put the elements in place that will be critical for the new GM to succeed in the future."

GM begins management changes by combining research and product development departments

DETROIT July 15, 2009; The AP reported that the new General Motors Co. began changing its executive ranks and streamlining its management structure Wednesday, announcing the departure of several top officials.

The biggest change is combining research with product development effective immediately. The two had been separate teams.

GM says in a statement that the move is a step toward making the company more agile and efficient.

The company also says Vice President of Research and Development Larry Burns and Vice President of Communications Steve Harris will each retire effective Oct. 1.

CEO Fritz Henderson promised to streamline GM's bureaucratic management structure and cut executive ranks by 35 percent. Changes are to be announced by the end of July.

Combining product development and long-term research gives GM the ability to tie research to future products, but it also could cause it to get shortchanged at budget time, said Martin Zimmerman, a former Ford Motor Co. chief economist who now is a professor of business administration at the University of Michigan.

"The product development guys are rightly going to be concerned about the near-term deployment of the technology, and the R&D guys typically are concerned about farther out," Zimmerman said. "The management problem comes when you have your budgeting decisions and there's going to be a tug between stuff that looks near-term and the longer-lead stuff."

Henderson, under pressure from the GM's largest stakeholder, the U.S. government, wants a more nimble company, one that can make decisions faster and is less bureaucratic than the GM of the past.

In the old GM, several committees often reviewed decisions, holding up new vehicles and making it slow to respond to market changes. Designs were often changed from bold to bland, with GM stamping out nondescript cars such as the old Chevrolet Malibu.

Henderson plans to thin executive ranks from about 1,300 to 850 by the end of the year. Total U.S. salaried employment will drop by 6,150, or 21 percent, from 29,650 at the start of the year to 23,500 by the end.

Burns, 58, a 40-year GM veteran, has led the automaker's move into alternative fuel technologies such as hydrogen fuel cells. He also has been an advocate for the industry to connect vehicles electronically to make roads safer and ease traffic flow.

He will be replaced by Alan Taub, 54, who now serves as executive director of research and development and is in charge of GM's seven science laboratories across the globe. Taub will report to Tom Stephens, vice chairman of global product development.

Harris, 63, a 40-year public relations veteran who has been with GM since 2006, will be replaced by Chris Preuss, 43, who now is vice president of global product and European communications. He will report to Vice Chairman Bob Lutz, who heads creative elements of products, marketing and customer relationships.