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Kent Kresa Retires

Kent Kresa, the man to which GM turned when the carmaker was left without a chairman, is taking his leave from the board of directors because, as GM's guidelines say, members of the board are ineligible for re-election after the age of 72.

Kresa had quite a career, having started as the man in charge with research and development programs for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). He moved on to work as an associate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he was in charge with supervising research into ballistic missiles.

He moved to Northrop Grumman, a manufacturer of military aircraft and technologies, where he served as chairman until 2003, when he was appointed to the American carmaker.

In March 2009, during GM's bankruptcy, Kresa was reconfirmed to the board and was appointed interim chairman after the White House forced CEO Rick Wagoner to leave the company. He held the position until the current chairman and CEO, Ed Whitacre, was appointed.

“Drawing from his experiences at Northrop, one of the world’s leading aeronautics companies, Kent was adamant that GM keep up with or lead key technological advances for the industry. And that’s one of our biggest strengths today,” Ed Whitacre, GM CEO said.

“Having led Northrop through crisis and renewal, Kent provided calm leadership and sensible guidance as the GM’s interim Chairman during what was a period of intense change, challenge and uncertainty for the company. We thank Kent with enormous gratitude for his dedicated service and many contributions to GM.”
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About the author: Daniel Patrascu
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Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies.
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