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Jerry York (businessman)
Jerome Bailey York (June 22, 1938 – March 18, 2010), commonly known as Jerry York, was an American businessman, and the chairman, president and CEO of Harwinton Capital. He was the former CFO of IBM[1] and Chrysler, and was CEO of Micro Warehouse. He was a chief aide to Kirk Kerkorian and his Tracinda investment company.[1] In February 2006, Kerkorian helped elect York to the board of directors of General Motors, from which he had previously resigned.[1] BiographyYork was born in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1938[1] and lived in Oakland Township, Michigan. He earned degrees from the United States Military Academy at West Point,[1] the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,[1] and the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business,[1] and was trained as an engineer. A gymnastics injury prevented York from serving in the military.[2] York eventually became the CFO at Chrysler. When Lee Iacocca retired as Chrysler CEO in 1992, York was a leading candidate to succeed him.[3] After being passed over as Chrysler CEO, York became CFO of IBM Corporation. He later served as a special adviser to investor Kirk Kerkorian during Kerkorian's 2007 failed takeover bid for Chrysler and his other investments in Ford Motor Company and General Motors, where he previously served as a board member from February to October 2006 before resigning over frustration resulting from GM's failure to distribute materials to the board in advance of its meetings and a reluctance to implement change recommendations, including the shedding of peripheral brands,[4] which GM ultimately affected during bankruptcy in the form of terminating the Pontiac, Saturn, and Hummer brands (after a failed sale attempt to Chinese Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery) and the sale of its SAAB division to Spyker Cars.[5] From 1999 to 2003, York was chairman and CEO of Micro Warehouse,[6] which went bankrupt. He was also on the board of Apple Inc. after Steve Jobs' comeback in 1997.[7] York was also an enthusiast of alternative energy, particularly wind energy. He was the CFO and a member of the board at USWind, a wind energy company of which he was a co-founder and active management team member. York believed that moving the turbine from adjacent to the blades to on the ground, by using a series of conveyor belts, would significantly increase height, decrease weight, and improve efficiency of wind power generation. York was also part of a team developing the next generation portable computer. York was hospitalized on March 17, 2010, after collapsing in his suburban Detroit home from a brain aneurysm.[8] He died the next day.[1] References
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