General Motors Corp. replaced its chief financial officer with a company executive who has experience in cost-cutting.
Frederick Henderson, the chairman of GM Europe, will take over for John Devine, who joined GM in 2001. Devine will remain at GM as a vice chairman for up to a year, serving as an advisor to GM chairman and chief executive Rick Wagoner.
The move comes two weeks after GM announced plans to cut 5,000 more jobs on top of previously announced plans to eliminate 25,000 jobs. The automaker is also expected to close all or part of 12 plants in North America, and is pushing to reduce its spending by $6 billion a year. The company is also being investigated by the Securities and Exchange Commission for its handling of retirement benefits and its relationship with bankrupt auto-parts manufacturer Delphi Corp.Henderson has run GM Europe since 2004, overseeing a cost-cutting program that called for the elimination of 12,000 jobs. Devine had spent 32 years at Ford Motor Co., retiring in 1999 as its chief financial officer.
