Ex-Microsoft CFO Liddell Joins GM

Chris Liddell, Microsoft’s former chief financial officer, has been named CFO and vice chairman of General Motors, the Detroit-based automaker. Liddell will lead GM’s global financial and accounting operations starting in the new year, and will report directly to Ed Whitacre, GM’s chairman and CEO. GM says it employs 209,000 people around the world and does business in some 140 countries. Liddell, 51, is officially leaving Microsoft (NASDAQ: [[ticker:MSFT]]) at the end of this month. He joined the Redmond, WA, company in 2005 and helped lead its $6 billion acquisition of aQuantive in 2007, as well as its recent cost-cutting measures.

Author: Gregory T. Huang

Greg is a veteran journalist who has covered a wide range of science, technology, and business. As former editor in chief, he overaw daily news, features, and events across Xconomy's national network. Before joining Xconomy, he was a features editor at New Scientist magazine, where he edited and wrote articles on physics, technology, and neuroscience. Previously he was senior writer at Technology Review, where he reported on emerging technologies, R&D, and advances in computing, robotics, and applied physics. His writing has also appeared in Wired, Nature, and The Atlantic Monthly’s website. He was named a New York Times professional fellow in 2003. Greg is the co-author of Guanxi (Simon & Schuster, 2006), about Microsoft in China and the global competition for talent and technology. Before becoming a journalist, he did research at MIT’s Artificial Intelligence Lab. He has published 20 papers in scientific journals and conferences and spoken on innovation at Adobe, Amazon, eBay, Google, HP, Microsoft, Yahoo, and other organizations. He has a Master’s and Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT, and a B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.