Opel loses its CEO: Karl-Friedrich Stracke is replaced

General Motors’ intolerance toward the unstoppable bleeding of money affecting its German partners at Opel has now reached levels that are going beyond reason. And it’s no wonder, considering that Opel is not getting back on its feet and continues to post losses totaling 14 billion dollars thrown away over the last 12 years.

Add to that the instability of its partners in the PSA Group, which today announced the closure of a French plant with 8,000 workers who will join the ranks of the unemployed, and there you have the perfect formula for Karl-Friedrich Stracke‘s head to have rolled just moments ago. The news has hit the Opel executive ranks like a bomb, given that just this morning Stracke was absent from a conference of German industrialists he was due to chair in Munich.

Stracke will continue working on “other special assignments” and will keep reporting to Dan Akerson of General Motors himself. The thing is that Opel has changed its head four times in the last three years, without interruption, and the agreements with the unions to close more plants in Europe to stabilize the accounts have still not arrived.

The vacancy in the post will initially be covered by Steve Girsky, head of the brand’s supervisory committee, until the order arrives from the US to appoint a replacement as president of the struggling Opel.

Via | Automotive News