Filed under: Government/Legal, Hirings/Firings/Layoffs, GM
While the job may not be popular at all in terms of public opinion, General Motors departing lobbyist Ken Cole has done a pretty good job of making the automaker a sympathetic figure for those inclined to bend rules and bail out poorly-managed behemoths. Sure, GM’s stature in the public eye is still down there with big tobacco, but Cole managed to keep the automaker’s relationship with governments around the world on a somewhat even keel. No mean feat when you consider how much divestiture underpins the whole of GM’s plan forward.
It might even be said that Cole the individual can’t be replaced by just one person, and Ed Whitacre seemingly agrees. Two of Whitacre’s former AT&T colleagues have been given offices in the company’s Detroit Renaissance Center headquarters as replacements for the departing Ken Cole. John Montford has been given a seat beside Whitacre where he will put government affairs under his purview, a role he honed as AT&T’s Senior Vice President of state legislative affairs. GM’s new Vice President of Government Relations is Bob Ferguson, who was most recently doing public affairs consulting, but he was all over state regulatory affairs at AT&T before that. We may get to see how well these guys can dance come June, when Whitacre has vowed to pay back nearly $7 billion in government loans. Official press release after the jump.
[Source: General Motors]
Continue reading GM hires ex-AT&T execs for lobbying efforts
GM hires ex-AT&T execs for lobbying efforts originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 30 Dec 2009 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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