Steve Girsky is leaving General Motors Co.'s board of directors after seven years aiding in the Detroit auto giant's rebuilding, including the overhaul of its European operations, following its bankruptcy filing.

The move, announced by the company Friday ahead of an annual proxy filing, allows the one-time Morgan Stanley auto analyst to lend more attention to U.S. Steel Corp. He is a nominee at next week's annual meeting to join the board of the country's largest steelmaker, which is cutting costs amid a global glut driving down prices.

Since leaving GM management, Mr. Girsky, 53 years old, has been working with and investing in tech startups. Among those companies is Red Bend Software, which provides over-the-air software and was purchased by Harman International Industries Inc. He is on the board of Valens Semiconductor Ltd. and an adviser to a handful of other companies.

Mr. Girsky, a former GM senior executive, declined to comment on the move until after he officially leaves the board. GM will nominate Janet Mendillo, retired chief executive of the Harvard Management Company, to stand as a director in his place at the annual meeting.

In a news release issued by the company, he said, "the GM that exists today is a much different and stronger company than it was when I first joined the board seven years ago."

As vice chairman, he was active in repairing the company's relationship with the United Auto Workers union, furthering GM's commitment to electrification, planting the seeds for a turnaround in European operations mired in losses, and speeding the company's installation of 4G connectivity in automobiles.

In the statement, GM Chief Executive Mary Barra also said the board member "brought the company expertise and skills in a variety of important areas at a critical time."

Mr. Girsky left the company's management team about the time Ms. Barra took the helm of the auto maker.

While known as one of the handful of executives in the running to succeed former GM CEO Dan Akerson in 2014, Mr. Girsky's history with GM includes a short stint working with the auto maker for less than a year when the company was struggling to restructure under Rick Wagoner in 2005. He has aided various union leaders in autos and steel to rework labor deals that protected worker interests even as concessions were made.

Mr. Girsky became active in GM's management ranks following the auto giant's 2009 bankruptcy, working for Ed Whitacre, a former telecom executive named by the Treasury Department as chairman as a term of government funding. Mr. Whitacre became CEO in late 2009 and considered Mr. Girsky a top lieutenant.

As a board member, Mr. Girsky was opposed to the company's abandoned bid to sell Opel, its European division, around the time of the bankruptcy. As an executive, he had spent considerable time as the architect of a deep restructuring of that business.

GM on Thursday reported break-even results in Europe for the first quarter, and said it would reverse several years of consecutive losses in the region this year.

Write to John D. Stoll at john.stoll@wsj.com

 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 22, 2016 10:55 ET (14:55 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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