GM Director Girsky, Put on Board After U.S. Bailout, to Leave

Steve Girsky, the former Wall Street analyst who joined General Motors Co.’s board at the behest of the UAW retiree health-care trust after the automaker’s 2009 bankruptcy, will retire as a director in June. He will be replaced by Jane Mendillo, the retired president and chief executive officer of Harvard Management Co., which oversees Harvard University’s endowment fund, the automaker said in statements Friday. Girsky, 53, is leaving after almost seven years on the board. He also served as GM vice chairman, oversaw its OnStar telematics business and made one of the company’s several attempts to fix its troubled business in Europe. Girsky, a former Morgan Stanley analyst, had a key role in reorganizing GM after it exited bankruptcy in July 2009 and then sold shares to the public in November 2010. CEOs Ed Whitacre and Dan Akerson came from the telecommunications industry, so both relied on Girsky’s knowledge of the auto industry. When Mary Barra got GM’s top job and Dan Ammann was promoted to company president in January 2014, Girsky stayed on as an adviser and a board member.