Rick Wagoner

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Wagoner (2004)

George Richard "Rick" Wagoner, Jr. (born February 9, 1953 in Wilmington ) was Chief Executive Officer of General Motors from June 2000 to March 2009 . With his resignation, he complied with a request from President Obama . From May 2003 he was also Chairman of the Board .

life and career

Wagoner grew up in Richmond and graduated from John Randolph Tucker High School there. He received a BA in Economics from Duke University in 1975 and an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1977 .

After graduating from Harvard, he began his career at General Motors as an analyst in the finance department. In 1981 he became CFO of the Brazilian General Motors subsidiary and later manager of this division.

He was appointed CFO in 1992, Executive Vice President and President of North America in 1994 , President and CEO on June 1, 2000, and Chairman on May 1, 2003.

The operational improvements that Wagoner has helped achieve over the decade since beginning his career as CFO were reflected in General Motors' leadership in the US market. After General Motors lost $ 30 billion in a single year in the early 1990s, Wagoner and Chairman Roger Smith forced General Motors back to basics to correct management mistakes made over the past 30 years.

Against the background of poor business figures, Wagoner took personal control of the North American car business in April 2005. In early June 2005, Wagoner announced that GM would shut down some manufacturing facilities in the United States and lay off 25,000 employees by 2008 (17% of the workforce). These cuts reduced GM's manufacturing capacity by a million cars and trucks (from 6 million to 5 million).

In an interview, Rick Wagoner said that the end of the EV1 development program and the associated budget cut for the hybrid program was the worst decision made during his tenure. It didn't change profitability, but it did change the image. The effect was that GM was no longer seen as a technology leader, but at a time of increased demand for low-emission vehicles as a company showing little interest in innovation, which led to the conclusion that GM, under Wagoner's leadership, had failed to recognize important trends.

At the end of 2008, Rick Wagoner and the CEOs of Ford ( Alan Mulally ) and Chrysler ( Robert Nardelli ) appeared before a committee of the US Senate to solicit bailout money from the US government to avert the impending insolvency. They were heavily criticized for their failed model policy, years of lobbying against stricter consumer guidelines (US CAFE legislation) and traveling with their own company jets.

At the end of March 2009, GM's CEO resigned under pressure from the US government with immediate effect after the 56-year-old had made the resignation of the 56-year-old a condition for further state aid. He was succeeded as Chief Executive Officer and President by the previous Chief Operating Officer Frederick A. Henderson . Kent Kresa was appointed as an interim solution for GM's supervisory board chair, followed by Edward E. "Ed" Whitacre Jr. in July 2009 after GM went through bankruptcy proceedings within 40 days.

Also in July 2009, GM announced that Wagoner was receiving more than $ 8.5 million in severance pay. Wagoner receives $ 1.7 million annually for five years, then $ 74,000 annually for life.

Wagoner serves on the board of directors of Duke University , Detroit Country Day School, the board of directors of Dean Advisors, Harvard Business School, and the board of directors of Catalyst, a society dedicated to the advancement of women in business. He is a member of the Detroit Renaissance Executive Committee and the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Sharon Terlep: Rick Wagoner: Ex-GM Boss Ends Long Silence. In: The Wall Street Journal . December 12, 2011, accessed July 6, 2016 .
  2. ↑ Rick Wagoner's Game Plan , BusinessWeek . February 10, 2003. Retrieved January 15, 2008. 
  3. ↑ John McGrath, Grist Mill: Environmental News and Commentary ( Memento of the original from December 20, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , June 28 2006 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / gristmill.grist.org
  4. ↑ Why Toyota Is Becoming the World's Top Carmaker , Newsweek
  5. ↑ Big Three bankruptcy worries on rise - Aug. 6, 2008
  6. ↑ GM's biggest problem: Lack of credibility ( memento of the original from March 25, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ev1.org
  7. ↑ Rick Wagoner tries to catch a falling knife - and fails , July 15, 2008
  8. ↑ New Car Rescue Plan Focuses on Oversight , The Washington Post . December 7, 2008. Retrieved January 14, 2009. 
  9. ↑ Tricky Rick muddles through , SPIEGEL online . February 18, 2009. Retrieved February 19, 2009. 
  10. ↑ cf. Lindner, Roland: Obama forces GM boss Rick Wagoner to resign at faz.net, March 30, 2009
  11. ↑ http://www.n-tv.de/wirtschaft/marktberichte/Millionen-fuer-den-Versager-article412856.html
  12. ↑ http://www.catalyst.org/page/89/boards
personal data
SURNAME Wagoner, Rick
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wagoner, George Richard Jr.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American manager, chairman and CEO of General Motors
DATE OF BIRTH February 9, 1953
PLACE OF BIRTH Wilmington , Delaware