Rick Wagoner tops Motor Trend 2008 Power List
by John Neff on Jan 2nd 2008 at 11:33AM 
Rick Wagoner must be doing something right as the Chairman and CEO of General Motors, as the auto-pundits at Motor Trend have named him the No. 1 auto industry power broker in their 2008 Power List of the top 50 players. While we haven't received our February 2008 issue yet and don't have all 50 names to share with you, MT was nice enough to reveal the top 10 and a few notables (see below).
GM and Volkswagen are most well-represented automakers in the top 10. The General landed Bob Lutz, Ed Welburn and its new CFO Fritz Henderson on the list in addition to Wagoner, while VW had three in the top 10, including Supervisory Board Chief Ferdinand Piëch, Chairman Martin Winterkorn and Group Design Chief Walter Da Silva. Curiously, no Autoblog staff members made the top 10.
Personalities of note on the 2008 Power List include:
#14 Alan Mullaly – Ford Motor Company Chief Executive Officer
#32 Kazunori Yamauchi – Polyphony Digital President, Gran Turismo 5 Designer
#33 John Dingell – U.S. Representative (D-Mich.), Chairman of Energy and Commerce Committee
#38 Liz Pilibosian – Chief Engineer, Cadillac CTS
#45 Jay Leno – NBC "Tonight Show" Host, Car Enthusiast
Follow the jump to see the top 10 players on the 2008 Power List from Motor Trend.
[Source: Motor Trend]
#1 Rick Wagoner – General Motors Chairman and CEO
#2 Fujio Cho – Toyota Motor Corporation Chairman
#3 Ferdinand Piëch – Volkswagen AG Supervisory Board Chief
#4 Bob Lutz – GM Vice Chairman, Global Product and Development
#5 Martin Winterkorn – Volkswagen AG Chairman
#6 Chris Bangle – BMW Design Group Chief
#7 Wendelin Wiedeking – Porsche AG Executive Board Chairman, Chief Executive Director
#8 Ed Welburn – GM Vice President for Global Design
#9 Fritz Henderson ("Rookie of the Year") – GM Vice Chairman, Chief Financial Officer
#10 Walter Da Silva – VW Group Design Chief
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Travler 11:10AM (11/10/2008)
Oh great, Motor Trend makes the Chairman and CEO of the largest company in the USA that's ready to file bankruptcy the headliner of their article. After continuing to build over sized, fuel inefficient, unnecessary vehicles for the US motoring public for so long, which is now ready to fold, and telling us how great they are.
WAKE UP USA and realize that you can't continue to build 6 ton, 500 horse monsters anymore. I thought you would have learned in the 60's and early 70's, but hell no, they are back at again, while everybody else is getting smart and building compact, fuel efficient, cars, just like Japan did in the mid 60's.
Go bankrupt or learn, that's my motto. Maybe it's time for a new hand at the US automotive wheel
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Mr. Oak 11:45AM (1/02/2008)
Did you say that this came from Motor Trend? Shucks, now I've got to go do my own research.
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EJ25RUN 11:50AM (1/02/2008)
Kazunori Yamauchi – Polyphony Digital President, Gran Turismo 5 Designer
damn thats the greatest man ever!
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tifosiotaku 1:02PM (1/02/2008)
Gran Turismo is an overrated series. The Forza Motorsport developers should be on that list instead.
EJ25RUN 1:06PM (1/02/2008)
forza 2 just doesn't stake up to the levels of GT. i mean common, when microsoft wont even let take 2 make the game they want, there is a definite issue.
i can understand where you are coming from because F2 was a good game but we havn't seen gt5 (no not prologue)yet and i feel that it will blow minds by the time its released.
And really GT has done more for japan car culture and sales then any advertising can buy. Be real.
John Smith 11:55AM (1/02/2008)
Wow. Great. I love Rick. And Bob. Actually I love Bob more, but that's another story.
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mike 12:17PM (1/02/2008)
This man should have been fired long time ago. What did he do? He was the one approving the production of all those SUVs and pickups in the face of higher oil prices. So much so that GM was close to bankruptcy, so much so that many wanted GM to marry Nissan.
How many costumers did he lose by building more and more SUVs and asking current GM owners to scarifies their resale value. It was poor to begin with, but now it is completely in the gutter.
I know many fan boys worship the guy as does the board of bystanders but just look back and see who was the CEO of the company when it was on the brink of death.
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Matt Keller 3:02PM (1/02/2008)
W... T... F? Fire Maximum Bob?
Your coat is by the door.
Tom 4:09PM (1/02/2008)
Gee, at the same time GM was selling all those trucks, Toyota and Nissan built brand new plants to produce (gasp) full-size trucks. It is also worth noting that much of the growth among the imports has been in small and midsize crossovers, which also happend to be (gasp again) trucks. Now everyone will have to adjust to higher fuel prices and new CAFE regs, but it is unfair to fault any profit-making company for selling consumers what they really want to buy.
Dr. K 1:08PM (1/02/2008)
Interesting also are names that have dropped off the list from last year (they list these at the end of the article) - Two are Craig Jackson (Barrett-Jackson auction fame) and Chip Foose. Signs perhaps that the TV/car show celebs have finally peaked ('jumped the shark' if you prefer).
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TBlueMax 1:14PM (1/02/2008)
I'm genuinely surprised Carlos Ghosn didn't make the top 10. Some folks may not like him for whatever reason(s) they may have but he's one of the smartest folks in the auto industry, but obviously not "powerful" enough to make MT's top 10. I'll have to wait til the rag hits the newsracks and peruse the pages then.
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Throwback 1:23PM (1/02/2008)
I did receive my Feb issue and there are several GM folks on the list. My personal favorite Ed Welburn, also made the list. These are some of best designs I have seen from GM since the Bill Mitchell era.
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whofan 4:01PM (1/02/2008)
It takes about five years to develope product in the auto business. GM was well into their truck and SUV strategy when they were selling . True they should pay equil attention to all products. Including small cars. Rick Wagoner is steering GM in the right direction now. He also avoided a disastrous Nissan merger that Kirk Kerkoren was pushing for.
The culture within GM is changing for the better, and thats a hard thing to do. People don`t like change. Same problem Ford is having. Designers fighting engineers fighting bean counters. Looks like GM is getting everyone on the same page.
Rick Wagoner and Bob Lutz are the best two men a company could have in their perspective jobs.
If Chrysler only had Lutz when they were in good shape.
Diamler didn`t know what to do with Chysler. Chrysler was fine before they had them. Kirk Kerkoren was meddling with Chrysler at the time too.
Rick Wagoner kept his cool and and steered GM clear of a merger mess.
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whofan 4:06PM (1/02/2008)
"I know many fan boys worship the guy as does the board of bystanders but just look back and see who was the CEO of the company when it was on the brink of death."
Can you say Roger Smith?
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DS 8:27PM (1/02/2008)
Still think Bob should have been #1...
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