Leaders of Auto Industry Hold Town Hall Meeting at NSU

From left: Mike Jackson, chairman and CEO of AutoNation; Michael Fields, Ph.D., dean of the Huizenga School; Fritz Henderson, CEO of General Motors; and H. Wayne Huizenga, namesake and benefactor of the Huizenga School and founder of AutoNation.	General Motors CEO Fritz Henderson presents at the Road Ahead Forum.

The future of the auto industry was discussed at a town hall meeting featuring the CEOs of General Motors and AutoNation at NSU on Oct. 8. Titled, the “Road Ahead Forum,” the event was hosted by NSU’s H. Wayne Huizenga School of Business and Entrepreneurship and held in the Rose and Alfred Miniaci Performing Arts Center on NSU’s main campus.

Fritz Henderson, CEO of GM, and Mike Jackson, chairman and CEO of AutoNation, America’s largest automotive retailer, each gave presentations and then answered questions submitted by the audience. Michael Fields, Ph.D., dean of the Huizenga School, served as moderator.

Huizenga School Dean Michael Fields, Ph.D, (center) with General Motors CEO Fritz Henderson (left) and AutoNation CEO Mike Jackson.	General Motors CEO Fritz Henderson (left) and AutoNation CEO Mike Jackson prepare to present at the Road Ahead Forum.

Henderson, who became CEO of GM in March and has led the company in its emergence from bankruptcy, presented on what led to the crisis in the auto industry and how GM is changing. “We run the company differently,” Henderson told the crowd of nearly 500. “We’ve moved layers out. Between year end ’08 and year end ’09, a third of our executive team was moved out. We didn’t have bad people, we had too many. We didn’t have bad plants, we had too many. … It was very painful, but it had to get done. It’s about running the company differently every single day.”

Jackson focused on the causes of the crisis, the effect of the restructuring of the industry, and his optimism for the future. “Going forward, I’ve never been more optimistic about the industry,” Jackson said. “I’m  a worrier and I’ve worried for the past eight years about this day of reckoning and what it would mean for the American economy, the automobile industry and our company AutoNation. The day of reckoning was much more traumatic than we ever thought, but we’re through it on the other side and going forward I have a very positive outlook.”