Ask the Best and Brightest: Who Is Kent Kresa?

Robert Farago
by Robert Farago

Yesterday, GM’s new boss (president Barack Obama) announced he was firing The General’s CEO and six members of GM’s Board of Bystanders. The new chief executive in chief also elevated BOD member Kent Kresa to the top slot. Kresa, who came to GM from the world’s least consumer-focused industry (unless you count killing them), replaces Rick Wagoner as GM’s new Chairman of the Board. You may remember Kent from from last May, when Kresa told the Wall Street Journal that Red Ink Rick was good to go. I mean, stay. “Management has a handle on the situation.” At the time, I wrote that the former Northrop CEO’s faith in Wagoner’s unspecified turnaround plan reflected “Kresa’s seat-of-the-pants, high stakes poker management style, and faith in political influence peddling.” But really, who IS this guy? Why is Kresa sitting pretty after sitting schtum? A little help from TTAC’s Best and Brightest in the Google department, and some thoughtful analysis, would be most appreciated.

Robert Farago
Robert Farago

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  • Landcrusher Landcrusher on Mar 31, 2009

    Interesting, we will likely find out one day whether he actually supported RIR or not. Seems to be the code to support the CEO until there is enough support to can the guy. Likely a good idea, but I would love to see support for a failure used as a reason to can the supporters. Might start getting people to take things more seriously.

  • Russification Russification on Mar 31, 2009

    state controlled production quotas using public finance, should be familiar terrian

  • Paris-dakar Paris-dakar on Apr 01, 2009
    I don’t see this as propping up unions. As a matter of fact, I don’t see how you could call that propping up unions. Do this or go bankrupt doesn’t exactly protect the unions you know. I call this 'propping up the Unions' simply because, in the 5 odd months this process has been going on, the UAW have yet to make a concession of any substance. In fact, their last position taken on this was 'not my problem' and 'we have a contract'. Until I see a serious concession from the UAW, I'll continue to look at this Bail Out as little more than a Transfer Payment made out of political favoritism - Cook County politics at its finest. I suspect other people will look at it the same way.
  • Coatejo Coatejo on Apr 03, 2009

    Kresa is responsible for building Northrop Grumman into the defense powerhouse that it is today. The guy is brilliant. If he would have been the guy running GM for the last 10 years instead of just one of the Board of Bystanders, GM would not be the mess that it is now.

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