Walter
G. Borst joins Navistar international Corporation on 1 August in the ‘hot seat’
of executive vice president and chief financial officer (CFO). He succeeds
Andrew J. Cederoth who has left the company.
Borst, 51, joins Navistar
from General Motors, where most recently he was the chairman, chief executive
officer (CEO) and president of GM Asset Management. He was responsible for
managing approximately $85 billion in assets, predominantly for the GM benefits
plans.
Prior to that, he spent
seven years as GM's treasurer and more than two years as CFO of Adam Opel AG.
"We are pleased to
have Walter joining our leadership team as we move through our turnaround and
reposition our company for future profitability and long-term success,"
said Troy Clarke, Navistar's newly appointed president and CEO.
"Walter is a highly
qualified executive with broad and deep financial expertise. He has proven
himself in a wide array of key financial leadership roles at one of the world's
largest vehicle manufacturers, all of which makes him the right person to lead
our financial operations and functions going forward," added Clarke.
"I'm excited to be
joining Navistar and look forward to helping shape the company's financial and
strategic direction for the benefit of its shareholders," said Borst.
"I'm confident that Navistar is on the right track under Troy Clarke's
leadership and am delighted that I'll have the opportunity to work with him and
the rest of the Navistar team."
Borst will report to Clarke
and serve on the company's senior leadership team. Borst has served as
chairman, CEO and president of GM Asset Management since May 2010. In this
role, he has acted as the firm's chief investment officer, responsible for the
implementation of the firm's investment process and its overall business
strategy.
Previous to this most
recent position, he was vice president and treasurer at GM from 2003 to 2010.
Borst has also served as CFO of GM's Opel business in Rüsselsheim, Germany,
from 2000 to 2002. Prior to that, Borst served in various treasury, controller
and financial operating capacities at GM, including director of financial
analysis and planning for GM Europe and assistant treasurer.
Borst has been with GM for
33 years. He holds a bachelor's degree in industrial administration from
General Motors Institute (now Kettering University) and a master's degree in
business administration from Stanford University.
His arrival at troubled
North American diesel engine and heavy truck maker Navistar marks the latest
twist in the company’s saga. Most notably Navistar hit the headlines when a
spat developed with Ford Motor Company over the quality and supply of diesel
engines for Ford’s F-Series trucks. This spat forced Ford to tap into its
European diesel engine technology to enter the diesel engine business in North
America, subsequently to make its own vee truck engines at its Chihuahua Engine
Plant (CEP).
Cederoth, whose named predictably has been linked
to his former boss, Danial Ustian, left the company at end of June. His
departure marks the latest management change at the truck and engine maker that
seeks to recover from a failed engine strategy.
Cederoth was Navistar’s CFO
from September 2009. The company described his resignation was part of a
planned transition to a new CFO.
Some might see his loss
from the company’s top-level management structure as an opportunity to wipe clean
the errors of the past as it makes a bid to sharpen up its business model.
Change was triggered last August
when Navistar ousted long-term chief executive Daniel Ustian after his new
diesel engine emissions technology humiliatingly failed to win US regulatory
approval; it forced Navistar to source engines from rival Cummins and even adopt
Cummins’ SCR engine emissions technology.
Navistar named former chief
operating officer Troy Clarke in March as the new CEO; he took over
after a brief stint by turnaround man Lewis Campbell, who made his name heading
up Textron Inc. ∎
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