Reuters
Ex-GM CEO Makes 'Green' Comeback
Sunday December 1, 11:11 am ET
By Michael Ellis
ROCHESTER HILLS, Mich. (Reuters) - Nearly 10 years to the day after he was pushed out as chief of General Motors Corp. (NYSE:GM - News), Bob Stempel shoveled a handful of dirt to break ground for a new plant in Ohio that could make him a key player in a more environmentally friendly automotive industry.
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Stempel, 70, could easily have retired to a comfortable life after his tenure as chairman and CEO of GM ended in October 1992 with a boardroom coup. But now as chairman of Energy Conversion Devices Inc. (NasdaqNM:ENER - News) he works 60 to 70 hours a week, and flies around the world to visit clients as he makes his case for battery-powered vehicles.
Stempel is betting that sales of hybrid cars and trucks, powered by conventional gasoline or diesel engines mated to an electric drive system, will grow in the coming years as companies seek more fuel-efficient vehicles.
In late October, Stempel ceremoniously kicked off construction of a 170,000-square-foot plant in Springboro, Ohio, that will make enough nickel-metal hydride batteries to supply 50,000 to 60,000 vehicles a year.
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