Ask the Best and Brightest: Who Is Kent Kresa?
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.
More by Robert Farago
Comments
Join the conversation
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.
state controlled production quotas using public finance, should be familiar terrian
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.