General Motors has tapped Jill Sutton to be Corporate Secretary and Deputy General Counsel for Corporate, Finance and Strategic Transactions. Sutton, who is new to GM, will begin effective immediately and will report directly to Craig Glidden, executive vice president and general counsel.
Prior to her new post at GM, the 43-year-old executive was vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary of Tim Hortons, Inc., now merged with Burger King under a new company called Restaurant Brands International Inc, 51 percent of which is owned by 3G Capital.
“Jill is a highly accomplished executive, having served as the general counsel and corporate secretary of a publicly traded company, and she has helped lead significant corporate transactions, including the Tim Hortons IPO and its eventual sale to Burger King,” said Glidden.
Glidden’s comments hold particular weight in light of FCA CEO Sergio Marchionne’s public comments that Chrysler/Fiat and GM must unite to better streamline product development costs moving forward.
While GM CEO Mary Barra has staunchly rebuffed Marchionne’s intentions, the decision to hire Sutton in part due to her accomplishments in leading corporate transactions strikes a resounding chord. Then again, it could be mere coincidence.
In any event, we’ll just have to wait and see how the merger talks play out, or peter out.
In the meantime, here’s a bit more background on GM’s new corporate secretary:
– Prior to Tim Hortons, Sutton was corporate counsel at Wendy’s International, Inc.
– She has also practiced corporate and health care law for Squire Sanders LLP and Eastman & Smith Ltd.
– Sutton holds a Juris Doctor degree, a Master of Health Administration and a Bachelor of Arts degree from The Ohio State University.
Comments
Cut the cute Internet crap.
The fact is the Sergio deal is bad and is not under consideration.
Now with that said the future of the industry will be soon mergers, limited partnerships or fending off hostile mergers. This is what we will see from all mfg.
As for Sergio he is on his own as he offers GM nothing they would need or want.
Now there are other strategic partners that would make sense and provide value.
This just in from the Ontario Kilted Yaksmen Gazette:
GM is in talks to broaden their lineup.
“A merger with Tim Horton’s/Wendy’s is on the table.
With GM’s 4GLTE and OnStar capability, patrol cars can order ahead for donuts, as well as Wendy’s full menu. The merger will expand to the general public, as well.
The deal is being brokered by Jill Sutton, who arranged the Horton’s/Wendy’s merger. Ms. Sutton recently joined GM as Deputy General Counsel.
Stand by for updates as we receive them.”
Man, those Canadians work fast.
Bad story here. Any searches on the GM Chrysler merger online will quickly reveal news that Sergio has said he will not try again for merger talks. He was rebuffed once and is not going to get his nose bloodied again, in his words. Its quite obvious they tried but when the activist investor’s went cold and also were not interested in a merger, FCA had no choice but to give up thier little fantasy. To be honest I think there is another player in the mix and also could be why Sergio gave up a lot quicker.
I know nothing of the current situation but, I remember once upon a time we paid money to merge with Fiat and a few years later paid more money to separate from Fiat. I’m curious why if it didn’t work out the first time, it would be better now.
GM got into the deal thinking it was a good way to increase volume and get a Euro Diesel. But those who turned the deal found they basically got hopelessly damaged Fiat that had too much capacity and too few sales with major MFG issues. All that and the deal did not include Ferrari. This was the second worst deal to the most recent Iran Nuke deal.
GM wanted out but found the agreement made them buy out and at the time they were better paying the money and losing Fiat than keeping them. It was kind of like holding a rattle snake at the tail.
GM just did not have the money to support themselves and fix Fiat. This is why I wondered just what Chrysler was doing when they joined up with Fiat. I felt they needed volume but Fiat was not the one that would help. Chryslers history of partnerships and owners has been pretty stark.
At this point there is no one wanting to work with Fiat as they are a mess. The only real good they have right now is the Ram and Jeep line and VW would love to have that but they want nothing else of the company. Fiat still has too much capacity in Europe that is bleeding them dry.
Sergio had gone crazy and has a 5 point plan that depends on increasing volume to 6-7 million cars up from 4.8 million last year just to make a corporation wide profit. While he has done well with Jeep he is bleeding them dry of their profits to fix Alfa but here he has to increase sales at Alfa from 68K a year to 400,000K a year. That is a number few think he can make even with the new models. Maserati is to be turned into a new Ferrari and is expected to reach sales of 75K too. Note these numbers for Alfa and Maserati are to be by 2018.
I fully expect Fiat to bleed Chrysler dry while trying to fix up the euro brands and then Sergio sells off what he can of the company or who ever is left after him. Ram and Jeep should be ok. Alfa could do ok with a larger brand or with a Chinese company with money. But the real issue is Chrysler that other than the aging LX line has no real value in cars. They have little in electric, hybrid and even just small cars in general to offer.
Sergio went public with his dream to merge and though he would have support from those he was friendly with in the financial area but they have turned on him and declared his idea a mess. At this point none want a part of this.
Now I could see GM doing more limited partnerships with Ford on major component parts like they already are doing with the Transmission. Things like climate systems and other things like this could be done and not hurt either company. Hell the new Ford trucks are running GM designed transmission to Ford Spec. This gives Ford a new reliable transmission at a good price and GM gets one for nearly nothing since most of the cost was absorbed by Ford. They did the same thing with BMW.
Other large companies will have to make similar deals. I expect Honda to work with someone too as they can not continue to eat cost on their own. BMW has a limited agreement with Toyota and I expect them to shop around for other partners.
The fact is development cost will continue to climb and most companies will not be able to go it alone unless they have massive volume like VW. We will see more working together and we will see a few more companies die.
I see an amalgamation here with Chrysler . The Jeep line is A1 and also popular around the world , the Ram pickups sales are right up there with GM and Ford and increase yearly at about 20 % +/- , at last check. It has a great muscle car and only so-so other car models . GM has an over abundance of car models , so they would completely drop Chrysler’s car models . This is a great fit and I can see why the rumors are still flying . I would not be surprised if GM were burning the midnite oil to look for a way to economically do a deal !! The key here is Ram trucks and Jeep , neither would compete with GM truck and CUV/SUV lines , but add incredible strength to GM’s worldwide business ,
So how would Ram be of any benefit to GM? GM already has all that they offer and sell a hell of a lot more of them to boot. Ram may have made some gains but they are still a distant third to the others.
Ram would be of great value to a company like VW who has no real pick up truck line other than the small truck they sell in south America.
I agree the car lines would die ASAP. Nothing there of much value to GM. Dodge being a performance division may be of interest again to someone like VW who has no real Muscle retro cars.
Jeep is one that many would want but at the rate Fiat is replacing models the sales are increasing but not sure how many people want to be saddled with Fiat based models. If you could get it now and retain the Wrangler and the more traditional models then bring in your own smaller models you would have a great buy,
But we have yet to see how the Renegade will sell yet and how well it will hold up. I get the feeling the traditional Jeep people will reject it and it will have to rely on new customers from outside jeep. Also Fiat quality is one of the worst. The Renegade was already delayed due to quality issues.
The bottom line is Sergio will want too much for what he has and too little gain for what they would get.
GM has the ability to do a Jeep like Vehicle at GMC for much less and make more money than buying all of FCA just for Jeep.
Also no one wants Fiat. They are now listed as the slowest selling car in America and that was one area Sergio was relying on to prop up Fiat sales. He will again miss his goals and will find himself on the automotive equivalent of the Titanic.
I agree with most of what you said but I really see no value of Ram for GM that is. Now if they did not already have two truck lines well you may have had something The only truck line of value at FCA to GM may be the van fleet sales since GM is still lacking there but their lines are about to come out soon.
Here is a very good article from the latest issue of Motor Trend…
http://blogs.motortrend.com/1507_poison_pill_how_to_destroy_gm_the_big_picture.html