George Richard "Rick" Wagoner Jr. (born February 9, 1953) is an American businessman and former chair and chief executive officer of General Motors. Wagoner resigned as chairman and CEO at General Motors on March 29, 2009, at the request of the White House. The latter part of Wagoner's tenure as CEO of General Motors found him under heavy criticism as the market valuation of GM went down by more than 90% and the company lost more than US$82 billion. He is a board member of ChargePoint, an electric vehicle infrastructure company. Family and education Wagoner was born in Wilmington, Delaware and grew up in Richmond, Virginia. He graduated from John Randolph Tucker High School there, where he was named "Best All Around" student in his graduating class. He received a BA in Economics from Duke University in 1975. He then attended Harvard Business School, from which he received an MBA in 1977. He is married and has three adult sons. While at Duke, he became a member of the Delta Tau Delta fraternity. Wagoner is a member of the boards of trustees of Duke University, Detroit Country Day School, the Board of Dean's Advisors of the Harvard Business School, and the board of directors of Catalyst. He is a member of The Business Council, The Business Roundtable, Detroit Renaissance Executive Committee, and the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board. General Motors After Harvard, he joined GM as an analyst in the treasurer's office. In 1981, he became treasurer of GM's Brazil subsidiary and later served as managing director. In 1992, he was named GM's chief financial officer, in 1994 he became executive vice president and/or president of North American Operations, and in 1998 he was named president and chief operating officer. After GM lost $30 billion during a single three-year stretch in the early 1990s, Wagoner and chairman John F. "Jack" Smith Jr. forced GM "back to basics" to battle "30 years of management mistakes" that left him with little room to maneuver. Chief Executive Officer Wagoner became president and chief executive officer in June 2000 and was elected chairman on May 1, 2003. Under his leadership, GM suffered more than $85 billion in losses. In an interview, Wagoner stated that the worst decision of his tenure at GM was "axing the EV1 electric car program and not putting the right resources into hybrids. "It didn't affect profitability," Wagoner claimed, "but