Business & Professional

Back Into The Fire

GM gets PR expert back
into the fray.

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S

teve Harris and his wife,
Roddie (Rosalie), had just
built their "dream home" in
Santa Fe, N.M. The Jewish automo-
tive industry executive had decided
to "wind down" after a 36-year career.
Then came a phone call from Rick
Wagoner, chairman and CEO of
General Motors — from which Harris
had retired two years earlier.
"Rick asked me to come back to
my old job as vice president of global
communications for about 18 to 24
months to help with the restructuring
and turnaround of the company," said
Harris. "I couldn't refuse him because
I want to help the company succeed!'
So, on Feb. 1, Harris, 60, resumed
commuting from home in downtown
Birmingham to the same office in
GM's headquarters in downtown
Detroit. "In one sense, it's like I never
left: he mused, "but I really didn't

realize what I was getting into when I
returned. I've gone through many dif-
ficult times in 36 years, but nothing
was ever like this. It's like a firestorm;
just high intensity seven days a week."
Widely acclaimed for his pub-
lic relations skills at GM, and the
Chrysler Group before that, Harris
has his hands full with the restruc-
turing of General Motors. The myriad
of "issues" includes a highly critical
press and a skeptical Wall Street com-
munity.
"The fact that Steve decided to
come out of retirement and return to
the difficult situation at GM shows
what kind of a person he is — a real
mentsh, a consummate professional:
declared Doron Levin of Franklin,
a writer for Bloomberg News who
has known Harris for 22 years. "He's
calm, measured, and always straight-
forward. Even when he has to say
`no' about something, he does it in a
way that makes it palatable. He's very
popular with the media."

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Steve Harris: "There's a lot of difficult work ahead."

Bill Carroll
Special to the Jewish News

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Into The Fire on page 38

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June 15 • 2006

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