Frederick Arthur "Fritz" Henderson (born November 29, 1958) was

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

and

Chief Executive Officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

General Motors The General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest automaker in the United States and ...

. Prior to his appointment as CEO on March 31, 2009, Henderson was the Vice President of General Motors and had been with the company since 1984. Frederick Henderson resigned as the CEO of General Motors on December 1, 2009. He replaced

Rick Wagoner George Richard "Rick" Wagoner Jr. (born February 9, 1953) is an American businessman and former chair and chief executive officer of General Motors. Wagoner resigned as chairman and CEO at General Motors on March 29, 2009, at the request of the W ...

as CEO of GM when Wagoner stepped down after serving in that position for eight years, at the request of President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...

in relation to the

General Motors Chapter 11 reorganization The 2009 General Motors Chapter 11 sale of the assets of automobile manufacturer General Motors and some of its subsidiaries was implemented through Chapter 11, Title 11, United States Code in the United States bankruptcy court for the Southern ...

. Henderson assumed the new position on March 31, 2009.

Early life and education

Henderson was born in

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

. He is a 1976 graduate of

Lake Orion High School Lake Orion High School is a public secondary school located in Orion Township, Michigan, United States. It is a part of Lake Orion Community Schools. "Once a dragon, always a dragon." - Jeff Heath Athletics State Championships * 1925 - Boys' Ba ...

Lake Orion, Michigan Lake Orion ( ) is a village in the northern outskirts of Metro Detroit in Oakland County, Michigan, United States. The population was 2,973 at the 2010 census. "Lake Orion" can refer to either the village or the much larger Orion Township, of wh ...

. He holds a

Bachelor of Business Administration Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) is a bachelor's degree in business administration awarded by colleges and universities after completion of undergraduate study in the fundamentals of business administration and usually including advanced ...

degree from the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

Ross School of Business The Stephen M. Ross School of Business, also known as Michigan Ross, is the business school of the University of Michigan, a public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Founded in 1924, the school is ranked among the best business schools i ...

and a

Master of Business Administration A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

degree from

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate business school of Harvard University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is consistently ranked among the top business schools in the world and offers a large full-time MBA p ...

. During his time at Michigan, Henderson pitched for the

University of Michigan Wolverines The Michigan Wolverines comprise 29 varsity sports teams at the University of Michigan. These teams compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA's NCAA Division I, Division I and in the Big Ten Conference in all sports except wo ...

baseball team.

Career

Henderson joined

in 1984. He held a number of positions with the company until 1992 when he became GMAC group vice president of finance in

. From 1997 to 2000, he was GM vice president and managing director of

GM do Brasil General Motors do Brasil is the largest subsidiary of General Motors in South America, one of the oldest and largest car producers in Brazil. Founded in 1925 and initially located in the historic district of Ipiranga, São Paulo, the company a ...

covering GM operations in

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

Paraguay Paraguay (; ), officially the Republic of Paraguay ( es, República del Paraguay, links=no; gn, Tavakuairetã Paraguái, links=si), is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to th ...

, and

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

. He was successful in introducing small, inexpensive cars such as the

Celta Celta is Galician, Portuguese and Spanish for the Celts. It may also refer to: * Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults (CELTA), an English teaching certificate * Celta (train), an international train service connecting Vigo and Port ...

subcompact Subcompact car is a North American classification for cars smaller than a compact car. It is broadly equivalent to the B-segment (Europe), supermini (Great Britain) or A0-class (China) classifications. According to the U.S. Environmental Prote ...

and the Meriva

microvan A microvan is a van or minivan which is within the Japanese kei car classification or similar, and is smaller than a mini MPV. In China, these vehicles are nicknamed ''mian bao che'' ("bread-loaf vehicle") because of their shape.

, both produced in Brazil. In June 2000, he was appointed group vice president and president of GM-LAAM (

Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

and

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...

) and in January 2002, he moved to

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

as president of GM Asia Pacific where he was successful in expanding operations in

Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...

and

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. In 2004, Henderson was appointed chairman of

GM Europe General Motors Europe (often abbreviated to GM Europe) was the European subsidiary of the American automaker General Motors ("GM"). The subsidiary was established by GM in 1986 and operated 14 production and assembly facilities in 9 countries, a ...

, based in Zurich,

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

, where he undertook substantial restructuring including significant reductions in jobs. After becoming vice chairman and chief financial officer in January 2006, in March 2009, he became GM president and chief operating officer. On December 1, 2009, Henderson resigned from General Motors as CEO and was replaced by board Chairman

Edward Whitacre, Jr. Edward Earl Whitacre Jr. (born November 4, 1941) is the former Chairman and CEO of General Motors. He is also a former chairman of the board and chief executive officer of AT&T, previously Southwestern Bell Corporation (SBC). He served as nati ...

, former head of

AT&T AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the world's largest telecommunications company by revenue and the third largest provider of mobile tel ...

Inc., who temporarily was CEO while a global search for a new permanent replacement is conducted. January 25, 2010 Ed Whitacre announces he will become the permanent CEO while keeping his current chairman of board of directors role. On February 19, 2010, GM announced that Henderson would serve as a consultant on their international operations, to be paid $59,090 per month ($709,080 per year). On September 2, 2010,

Sunoco, Inc. Sunoco LP is an American master limited partnership organized under Delaware state laws and headquartered in Dallas, Texas, that is a wholesale distributor of motor fuels. It distributes fuel to more than 5,500 Sunoco-branded gas stations, ...

announced that Henderson would join the company as senior vice president, and that he will lead the company's SunCoke Energy unit as chairman and CEO when it is spun off in 2011. On June 11, 2018, Adient plc announced that Henderson would replace former CEO R. Bruce McDonald as interim CEO, pending a search for a full-time replacement for McDonald.

Personal life

Henderson is married to Karen Henderson and has two daughters, Sarah and Emily Henderson.

References

* , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Henderson, Frederick 1958 births Harvard Business School alumni Living people Businesspeople from Detroit American chief executives in the automobile industry Ross School of Business alumni General Motors former executives Michigan Republicans American chief financial officers