Auto industry analyst Stephen Girsky will occupy the General Motors Corp. board seat saved for the Voluntary Employee Beneficiary Assn. (VEBA).
The VEBA administers benefits for retired GM employees covered under the auto maker’s contract with the United Auto Workers union.
President of New York-based S.J Girsky and Co., Girsky advised the UAW when GM, which filed for bankruptcy June 1, first began to pursue emergency government aid last year as sales plummeted in the wake of the credit crisis. Girsky also counseled GM on the sale of its Saturn-brand operations to Penske Automotive Group Inc., after a brief tenure in 2005 as a special advisor to former GM CEO and Chairman Rick Wagoner and then-CFO John Devine.
Former AT&T executive Ed Whitacre has been named GM chairman. He will join current board members Philip A. Laskawy, Kathryn V. Marinello, Erroll B. Davis Jr., E. Neville Isdell, President and CEO Fritz Henderson, Kent Kresa and six as-yet-unnamed directors – including a representative of the Canadian government.
Canada and the Canadian province of Ontario have a 12% stake in GM by virtue of a $9.8 billion emergency financing arrangement with the auto maker.
