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Kutner is at the center of GMs
globalization efforts.

BILL CARROLL
Special to the Jewish News

arold Kutner's mother-in-
law was appalled 36 years
ago when he told her he
was quitting an account-
ing firm to join a division of General
Motors.
General Motors? The mostly gen-
tile giant corporation in the mostly
gentile automotive business? General
Motors? One of the automotive Big
Three that included Ford Motor
Company, founded by Henry Ford,
one of the most notorious anti-
Semites of all time?
To her, "big three" meant a nice
Jewish boy should become a doctor,
lawyer or CPA. And the fact that
Kutner, the young husband of her
daughter Judy already was an accoun-
tant suited her just fine. She believed
the goyishe car business was no place
for a Jew.
Kutner often wonders what his late
mother-in-law would think today if
she knew he is the highest-ranking
Jewish executive in the worldwide

9/24. '•
1999

76 Detroit Jewish News

Harold Kutner has taken his purchasing expertise
to the top of General Motors.

automotive business — a fact con-
firmed by human resources personnel
at the various auto manufacturers. As
General Motors group vice president
in charge of worldwide purchasing
and North American production con-
trol and logistics, he manages 6,200
employees, including three other vice
presidents.
GM sources place Kutner's com-
bined salary, bonus and other GM
income last year at between $1 mil-
lion and $2 million. That's not too
shabby for the young Jewish native of
Buffalo, N.Y., whom GM hired at
$100 per week in 1963 to work in
the finance department of its
Harrison Radiator Division in nearby
Lockport.
Kutner took over the top GM pur-
chasing position in August 1998, and

now oversees the purchase of $86
million worth of automotive parts a
year for 8.6 million vehicles manufac-
tured in 30 countries and sold in 170
nations. Last month, GM handed
him additional duties and moved
GM-Europe supply chief Bo
Andersson to Detroit to head day-to-
day activities of worldwide purchas-
ing. Andersson reports to Kutner.
The change enables Kutner to
focus on shortening the time between
a customer's order for a car and its
delivery. This includes integrating
custom express delivery and rapid
order fulfillment — programs to
increase competitiveness and cus-
tomer response.
Kutner discussed these issues and
his life at GM at his offices in the
company's North American

Operations Headquarters at the GM
Technical Center in Warren. Rather
than sit in a cushy chair behind a
large desk, he prefers to work in a
barren meeting room called "Harold's
Team Room," usually at a 10-hour to
12-hour per day pace.
Kutner, 59, attended Buffalo
schools, was bar mitzvah at Temple
Beth Zion, and worked in his father
Albert's furniture store and at a phar-
macy while pursuing a B.S. degree in
finance from the State University of
New York. "I realized right away that
furniture and pharmacy weren't for
me," he said, "so I took my degree
and joined the public accounting firm
for a year. But I couldn't resist the
GM offer since I had just gotten mar-
ried and also was paying off a college
loan.
He and Judy, a former teacher,
have two daughters: Lauren, now a
Chicago teacher, and Andrea, a pur-
chasing executive for Motorola
Corporation in Chicago. His mother
Mary, 81, still lives in Buffalo.
Kutner moved through the ranks
quickly at the Harrison Division and