CORRECTED - UPDATE 3-Ex-AT&T CEO Whitacre to become new GM chairman
(Corrects title of Kathryn Marinello to CEO in paragraph 13)
* Kresa to continue to serve as interim chairman
* Selection process under way for four more directors
* GM says to have total of 13 board members (Recasts first paragraph, adds background, adds quote from Kresa, analyst)
DETROIT, June 9 (Reuters) - General Motors Corp GMGMQ.PK on Tuesday took a step toward restructuring its widely criticized board by naming former AT&T Inc (T.N) CEO Ed Whitacre to become chairman of the reorganized automaker when it emerges from bankruptcy under U.S. government oversight.
Whitacre, an engineer by training who guided Texas-based Southwestern Bell through a decade of transformative mergers, will take over as chairman when a new GM is launched out of bankruptcy, the company said. [ID:nN09173429]
GM, which filed for bankruptcy on June 1, plans a quick sale process that would allow a much smaller automaker to emerge from court protection in as little as 60 days under the majority ownership of the U.S. Treasury.
By picking Whitacre as chairman for the new GM, the White House-appointed autos task force took the first step toward establishing a restructured board to oversee the government's $50 billion investment in reshaping an American industrial icon.
"He is coming into an industry that is accustomed to heavy regulations. He knows how to grow a company. He gives a lot of credibility to GM's restructuring," said Stephen Spivey, an auto analyst with Frost & Sullivan.
Former GM Chairman and Chief Executive Rick Wagoner, who had staked his reputation on keeping the company out of bankruptcy, was ousted by the Obama administration at the end of March.
In announcing Whitacre's selection, GM also confirmed that the longest-serving board members and those most closely associated with Wagoner's tenure would be leaving.
Kent Kresa, former chief executive of Northrop Grumman Corp (NOC.N) who has been serving as GM's interim chairman, will stay on in that position until Whitacre takes over, GM said.
Whitacre and Kresa, along with current board members Philip Laskawy, Kathryn Marinello, Erroll Davis Jr, E. Neville Isdell and Chief Executive Officer Fritz Henderson, will serve as the "nucleus" of the restructured board, GM said in a statement.
GM's board has come under fire before as efforts to restructure and turnaround a long-running slide in its business faltered. In the late 1980s, Texas tycoon Ross Perot dubbed his fellow GM directors "pet rocks" who sat silently by then-CEO Roger Smith.
In 2006, Jerry York, a director representing billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian, resigned from the GM board and said that directors were unwilling to challenge Wagoner. Continued...
