Ex-GM CEO Rick Wagoner Gets $8.2m Pay-Off
Back when TTAC was a voice in the wilderness on GM’s C11, I asked Bob Lutz if his pension was bankruptcy-proof. Maximum Bob scoffed and joked that he’d check with his accountant. Well, I guess he didn’t; the Car Czar recently revealed that hard times had forced him to sell one of his personal jets. After losing his shirt on GM stock options. The fact that MB’s working for New GM also indicates that he forgot to get while the getting was good. He should have had a word with his boss, Rick Wagoner. The ex-GM CEO, the man who wiped billions from the company’s worth and faceplanted the American automaker, made sure his financial future didn’t depend on anything as trivial as success.
Sure, Wagoner was due to collect $22.1 million for time served. But even though his contract was with Old GM, Red Ink Rick’s riches were [somehow] assigned to New GM. Which means Wagoner’s getting an $8.2 million dollar thank you. Oh and a $74,030 annual pension. Oh and a chance to cash-in his $2.57 million life insurance policy. And unspecified perks (cars for life, travel, etc.). Bodyguards? The Detroit News tells us “General Motors Co. officials declined comment.”
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Lets review, Bernie lies, cheats and steals, loses over $65 Billion in investor wealth and gets 150 years in prison. Rick dithers, bumbles, and F's up, loses over $85 Billion in investor wealth and gets a $8.2 million pension. So the lesson here is if you are an incompetent idiot the world is your oyster.
It was John Smale and Ron Zarella that fiddled while GM's downward path gained so much speed. Mr. Wagoner did a great deal to fix prior mistakes, but the mis-marketing inertia and corporate-cultural dysfunctionality of the former world's largest corporation was more than he could immediately reverse. Business historians, I think, will treat him well, but his predecessors badly.
The real lesson here is that US CEOs are grossly overpaid. Period
The new Ubermensh, CEOs of America. Shoot them on sight, improve the economy.