Ray Young to go, after 27-year career with GM?

Citing individuals allegedly close to the company, various
news sources have said that a two-day meeting of GM’s board in early September
ended with the resolution that Young would leave, though there was no
information on whether he would be sacked, or resign. It is intended to float
the new company in 2010.

Young was made CFO in March 2008 and GM was taken into government ownership
this July.

Reports also claim that GM has retained a headhunting firm to find candidates
to replace Young from outside the company, suggesting that president Obama’s
administration’s Auto Task Force questioned Young’s performance as CFO and asked
similar queries of the company’s finance department overall.

The Canadian-Chinese Chicago business administration graduate made his mark
swiftly at GM and was believed to be in line for the CEO role. Joining its
Canadian HQ after finishing his studies in the mid-1980s, he quickly moved to
its New York operations where he progressed through treasury into management,
before moving to Brussels to oversee GM Europe’s corporate finance and treasury
operations.

He became president of finance for GM’s joint venture with Suzuki in 1996
moving back to North America before relocating to Japan to establish GM’s
strategic alliance with Suzuki there. In summer 2001, he was back in the US as
CFO for GM North America, but by 2004 relocated to Brazil to become managing
director of GM’s business there, before becoming group CFO last March, two weeks
before CEO Rick Wagoner was shunted out at the request of Obama and 48 hours
before the company admitted it would go bust in 30 days unless it got a
government bailout.

Asked in July by online news magazine Daily Finance how he felt
about the rebirth of GM as a government owned business, he said: “To go into
bankruptcy and get out of it in 40 days has exceeded our expectations. The last
six months has been spent on contingency planning.”

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