GM considers former AT&T exec for top financial post

GM considers former AT&T exec for top financial post
Robert Snell The Detroit News
November 08, 2009 12:02 PM

General Motors Co. is considering a former vice chairman of AT&T among roughly seven candidates to replace Chief Financial Officer Ray Young, according to two sources familiar with the search.

Charles Noski, a member of Microsoft Corp.'s board of directors, has the mix of financial acumen and executive experience that could also be essential if the GM board eventually replaces President and CEO Fritz Henderson, a source said.

Noski was AT&T's senior executive vice president and chief financial officer from 1999 to 2002. He became vice chairman in February 2002, though his tenure at the telecom company did not overlap with that of GM board chairman Ed Whitacre, who served as chairman and CEO of AT&T after it merged with SBC Communications in 2005.

The CFO search is an essential part of GM's restructuring considering Young and the automaker's financial department drew intense criticism from the White House this year. The finance job has been a springboard into the CEO's office. Two of Young's predecessors as finance chief -- Henderson and Rick Wagoner -- were eventually promoted to chief executive officer.

The next CFO not only has to tackle deeply ingrained problems at GM but also win the confidence of politicians and the White House. In widely read comments published last month, Steven Rattner, President Barack Obama's former top auto adviser, said GM had "perhaps the weakest finance operation any of us had ever seen in a major company."

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