Chris Liddell To Leave Microsoft

New Zealand native and Chief Financial Officer for  Microsoft Chris Liddell has made a major career move, formally announcing that he will be leaving the company to assume a similar role at General Motors.  While his appointment to the position at the recently troubled car maker is new news to most, Chris Liddell had announced his intention to leave the computing giant earlier this year, desiring a similar position at another type of company, preferably in the private financial sector or other areas. 

Chris Liddell will formally leave Microsoft at the end of the year, replacing Ray Young at General Motors.  Young had transferred positions, being offered the vice-president of International Operations earlier in December. 

Liddell comes to General Motors with a rather lengthy up hill battle on his hands.  Right off the bat, he will have to find a way to repay close to $7 billion in government aid that helped to keep the automaker afloat, and making it so the company can once again be a publicly traded company.  Currently, thanks to the U.S. government bailout plan, the U.S. owns around 61 percent of the company.  A bankruptcy filing was made by General Motors on June 1, 2009, to help the company reorganize from over an $88 billion loss it took from 2004 to the present.  Should he be able to pull off all of this in a rather short period of time, many industry insiders are saying the Chris Liddell may wind up running the automaker, being put in the running for the coveted CEO position.

Microsoft has been a home for Liddell for several years, taking the Chief Financial Officer position at the computing company in 2005.  Prior to accepting the position there, he worked for International Paper, holding the same position.  At Microsoft, Peter Klein, a 47 year old financial officer, will be taking Liddells positions, presumably at the start of the new year.  While at General Motors, Liddell will be reporting to Ed Whitacre, the current acting chief executive.  Liddell's addition to the General Motors team will hopefully restore the automaker to their former glory. GM has made a number of upper-level changes to their management and finance departments. 

When the economy went south, automotive companies were one of the first industries to start significantly losing money along with the financial sector.  Many of the American based automakers lost a lot of money when the economy went bad, leaving a number of people unemployed due to job cuts.  The companies were eventually bailed out by the U.S. government, and allowed to continue operations while working on adapting to a new market, something the auto industry had fallen behind on.  The outlook for many American automakers is starting to look up, and the general outlook of General Motors is now on the rise  with the addition of Chris Liddell to their team.

Before Microsoft

Many have been focusing their attention towards Chris Liddell before he started at Microsoft when it was announced that he would be joining the GM team.  As previously stated, Liddell worked at International Paper as CFO before heading to Microsoft.  International Paper is the world's largest paper company, operating in several countries around the world, including countries in Europe, North and South America, Asia, and Africa.  Prior to working for International Paper, Liddell was the CEO of Carter Holt Harvey Ltd., a New Zealand based forestry company dealing in paper, packaging, wood products, and pulp.  Prior to his work at Carter Holt Harvey Ltd., he was an investment banker at CS First Boston in New Zealand.  With this lengthy list of experience in the financial sector and big business, many believe that Chris Liddell is the night in shining armor that is needed for GM.

Liddell has earned two degrees, an Engineering degree from the University of Auckland, which he received with honors, and a Master of Philosophy he earned from Oxford University.  In addition to his pair of degrees, he is also a very active man, competing in triathlons and Ironman competitions, not to mention his involvement in various other sports, including yoga and rugby.

In fact, Chris Liddell has also served as the director of the Rugby Union in New Zealand, has held a number of positions in the New Zealand Sports Foundation (including the governorship), and has been a past member of the New Zealand-based Project Crimson, a leading environmental protection group in the country. 

To provide yet another credential to instill confidence in the new General Motors CFO, he was also a member of the Securities and Exchange Commission's Advisory Committee of Improvements to Financial Reporting. 

Liddell may have a very difficult task on his hands, but time will tell as to whether or not he will be able to get the company public once again.  The Board at General Motors put Liddell in their cross hairs, and have been quoted as saying they would either take Liddell, should he accept their offer, or continue their search for a new CFO.  Many industry insiders are confident that Chris Liddell is the only man suited for the position at GM.

 

 

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