Reformulated GM shakes up management tree

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Less than a week after it exited bankruptcy, GM is shaking up its management ranks.

The automaker, now formally known as General Motors Co., said today that its top in-house lawyer, Bob Osborne, its chief of R&D, Larry Burns, and its head of public relations, Steve Harris, will all depart.

‘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,’ said Chief Executive Fritz Henderson in a statement.

The changes are presumably the first among many. Last week, when GM announced its emergence from the Chapter 11 process, Henderson said the automaker would cut 6,000 white-collar jobs, including 35% of its executives. Henderson has made it clear that he intends to install a far more streamlined, less-bureaucratic corporate structure at a company infamous for red tape.

Among the executive exits will be former Chairman and Chief Executive Rick Wagoner, who it was announced on Tuesday will officially retire Aug. 1. However, Bob Lutz, who was set to leave the company at year’s end, will instead stay on head GM’s marketing operations.

Osborne, who played a central role in helping the company secure a series of federal loans this year, as well as guiding the company through the bankruptcy process, will enter private practice as a lawyer. He is succeeded by Michael Milliken, who has been at the company for 32 years.

Communications director Harris is departing GM after his second stint at the company. After leaving to pursue a career in private public relations work, Harris was brought back by Wagoner to help the company through what proved its most publicly agonized period.

He is expected to retire and his job will be handled by Chris Preuss, who most recently headed communications for GM’s operations in Europe. Preuss will answer to Lutz.

Perhaps the most significant departure is Burns, who has been GM’s leading cheerleader for technological advancement in automobile design, pushing development of electric and other drivetrain technologies. One of his pet projects, hydrogen fuel cells, has proved extremely expensive but has yet to lead to a commercially viable product.

His successor, Alan Taub, has been in charge of GM science laboratories worldwide. Under a new organizational structure, his department will report to the head of product development.

-- Ken Bensinger