General Motors Co. said Patricia Russo, the former Alcatel-Lucent chief executive officer who joined the automaker’s board last year, will become lead director.
GM also announced that Vice Chairman Stephen Girsky will receive $5 million in annual total compensation, of which $500,000 is cash salary and the rest is equity in the Detroit- based company including salary stock and restricted stock units.
Russo’s appointment gives the board two members in leadership posts with telecommunications backgrounds. Chairman and CEO Ed Whitacre held those jobs at AT&T Inc. when he retired in 2007 after 43 years at the biggest U.S. provider of telephone service. Russo, 57, worked in the industry from 1981 to 2008.
“Her business career speaks for itself,” said Maryann N. Keller, principal of Maryann Keller & Associates, a Stamford, Connecticut-based consulting firm. “She will play an important role as a conduit between the board and management.”
Russo left Alcatel-Lucent in late 2008. Her previous positions included serving as CEO of Lucent Technologies Inc., among other executive jobs there, and working at AT&T Corp., a predecessor of AT&T Inc.
Two other GM directors have telecommunications ties: Carol Stephenson was president and CEO of Lucent Technologies Canada and is a director for Manitoba Telecom Services Inc., and Daniel Akerson was president and chief operating officer for MCI Communications Corp. and CEO of Nextel Communications Inc.
