GM hires its new CFO from Microsoft

DETROIT (AP) — General Motors Co. has hired the chief financial officer of Microsoft Corp. to run its troubled finance operations, tapping a cost-cutter who also is a potential candidate for CEO.

Chris Liddell will become CFO starting next year and report directly to interim CEO Ed Whitacre Jr., who is himself a newcomer to the automaker. The 51-year-old Liddell is the first permanent top manager hired from outside the company since it left bankruptcy protection in July. Whitacre, who says he wants to shake up GM’s slow and rigid culture, has pushed out top executives and promoted younger managers in recent weeks.

Liddell replaces GM CFO Ray Young, who is transferring to China. The former head of the government’s autos task force wrote that GM had the weakest finance operation that task force members had seen in a major company.

Liddell, a former investment banker and Oxford University graduate, brings to GM a reputation for holding down costs and stockpiling cash from his tenure with Microsoft, which last month announced he was stepping down.

In announcing his departure, Microsoft said he was leaving to pursue jobs above the level of CFO.

The New Zealand native is a likely candidate for the top position at GM and could be taking the CFO job to get to know the automotive business, management experts say.

Whitacre, who is 68 and the former head of AT&T Inc., became interim CEO earlier this month but says he doesn’t want the job.

Jeffrey A. Sonnenfeld, a professor at the Yale School of Management, says it’s hard to imagine Liddell leaving a strong global icon like Microsoft for an “eroded pillar of an old economy” without being dangled an opportunity to run it.

GM spokesman Chris Preuss says he does not know if Liddell is a candidate for the top job. He also says he does not know Liddell’s pay package, which could be controlled by government-imposed pay limits.

Liddell led an effort this year to slice $3 billion in costs at Microsoft after it became clear the technology industry would not be immune from the effects of the economic meltdown. The plan included the software company’s first mass layoffs, wage freezes as well as cuts to employee travel and other expenses.

Liddell also made stockpiling cash a priority. In the most recent quarter, Microsoft’s cash and short-term investments that could be quickly converted to cash jumped to $36.7 billion from $31.4 billion three months earlier.

He joined Microsoft in 2005, and during his tenure, the Redmond, Wash.-based company remained an avid acquirer of smaller companies, including a $6 billion takeover of Internet advertising technology provider aQuantive Inc. He was also on board when Microsoft made its $47.5 billion bid for Yahoo Inc. in 2008.

“We’re also looking to his experience and insights in corporate strategy as a member of the senior leadership team in helping our restructuring efforts,” Whitacre said in the statement.

Liddell came to Microsoft after serving in the same role at International Paper Co., a global paper and packaging manufacturer and distributor.

Before IP, he had CEO experience as the top executive of Carter Holt Harvey Ltd., then New Zealand’s second-largest listed company. He also was managing director and joint CEO for CS First Boston NZ Ltd.