A Chairman to Put the ‘New’ in the ‘New GM’
By naming former AT&T chief executive Edward Whitacre Jr. to be its next chairman, General Motors today underscored its mission to emerge from bankruptcy as a very different company than the one that squandered its dominant position in the U.S. auto market, says Wharton management professor John Paul MacDuffie, who co-directs the International Motor Vehicle Program. “GM’s decline over so many years happened under the watchful eyes of the current board, and … there really need to be some changes in that governance structure,” MacDuffie said. “It’s kind of consistent with some of the other sweeping changes that they would want to bring [in] a new perspective.” Use the player below for a recording of MacDuffie’s comments.
