GM seeks new finance head

General Motors Co. CEO Fritz Henderson will step up efforts to hire outsiders for chief financial officer and other positions in the department the former auto task force chief called the weakest, said people familiar with the matter.

The Detroit automaker is recruiting for CFO and dozens of lower-level jobs, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the plans are private.

CFO Ray Young, who succeeded Henderson and reports to him, is expected to be reassigned to help run GM’s international operations, three of the people said.

“What they’re trying to do is put together a management structure that’s more oriented toward a change in vision,” said Stephen Spivey, a senior auto analyst at consultancy Frost & Sullivan Inc. in San Antonio. “I wouldn’t be surprised to see them bring in people from outside of the auto industry and see if they can have some type of cultural impact.”

Henderson can speed up hiring after Kenneth Feinberg, the government’s special master on pay, unveiled restrictions Thursday for GM and six other companies that received a taxpayer rescue.

Of 42 job postings for experienced professionals on GM’s Web site, 31 are finance and accounting positions.

Steven Rattner, who led the auto task force that reorganized GM in a 40-day bankruptcy earlier this year, said this week in an article on Fortune magazine’s Web site that GM had perhaps the “weakest finance operation any of us had ever seen in a major company.” GM emerged from bankruptcy July 10, and Rattner left the task force three days later. – Freep

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