GM's Steve Girsky to Leave Board
April 22 2016 - 11:10AM
Dow Jones News
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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