Retired GM Chairman and CEO to Deliver VCU Commencement Address

By Tom Gresham

G. Richard Wagoner Jr., the former chairman and CEO of General Motors, will be the featured speaker at Virginia Commonwealth University’s fall commencement ceremony next month.

Wagoner, who grew up in Richmond and graduated from J.R. Tucker High School, retired from GM in August 2009 after a 32-year career at the auto company. Wagoner was named GM’s president and CEO in June 2000 and assumed the role of chairman and CEO in May 2003, serving in that position until March 2009.

Other senior-level positions Wagoner held at GM included president and chief operating officer; executive vice president of GM and president of North American Operations; executive vice president, chief financial officer and head of worldwide purchasing; and president and managing director of GM do Brasil.

Wagoner is a member of the board of directors of The Washington Post Co. and Aleris Corp., and a member of the AEA Investors Global Advisory Board. He also serves as chair of the board of trustees of Duke University, as a member of Duke’s Fuqua School of Business Advisory Board and as a member of the Detroit Country Day School Board. He is a member of The Business Council and the Mayor of Shanghai’s International Business Leaders Advisory Council.

Commencement exercises will be held on Dec. 10 at 10 a.m. at VCU’s Stuart C. Siegel Center. The ceremony can be viewed live online at www.vcu.edu.