General Motors chairman and interim CEO Ed Whitacre has announced a major management reshuffle just three days after the board asked former president and CEO Frederick 'Fritz' Henderson to resign.

The key changes are the promotion of Mark Reuss to president of GM North America while Nick Reilly becomes president, GM Europe, where he has been acting head since the recent departure of Carl-Peter Forster.

Bob Lutz remains vice chairman and will act as advisor on design and global product development.

Reuss had briefly headed engineering after returning from running GM's Holden operations in Australia in 2008. New vice president, vehicle sales, service and marketing operations, Susan Docherty, will report to Reuss.

The new North American management group also includes Diana Tremblay as head of manufacturing and labour relations - she previously was vice president of labour relations and Denise Johnson is now in that job. Johnson was most recently vehicle line director and chief engineer for global small cars. 

Reilly, who has been heading the Opel/Vauxhall restructure in Europe, will also leave his role at the top of GM international operations which essentially runs everything GM does outside North America.

He is replaced by Tim Lee, named today as president overseeing GM's Asia-Pacific, Latin America, Africa, and Middle East operations. Lee was most recently group vice president of manufacturing and labour relations.

Thomas Stephens remains vice chairman of global product operations and adds global purchasing to his organisation, which will continue to be headed by Robert Socia, the vice president of global purchasing and supply chain.

Karl-Friedrich Stracke is now vice president, engineering, reporting to Stephens - he was most recently executive director of engineering.

Christopher Preuss, vice president, communications, now reports direct to CEO Whitacre; he previously reported to Lutz, who Henderson persuaded to defer his planned retirement to head marketing. Whitacre told GM employees in Detroit that board member Steve Girsky, a former GM adviser who joined the company's board in July, will also serve as a special adviser to the new CEO.

Ray Young, who guided the 'new GM' finance staff through the government-funded bailout and Chapter 11 restructuring earlier this year, remains as CFO, reporting to Whitacre.

However, a US media report said GM was also looking for a new chief financial officer as well as a new CEO to eventually replace Whitacre. In an an internal broadcast, the chairman also told employees to work to change the culture and fight bureaucracy.

Other reports said Whitacre and other board members had been concerned Henderson didn't bring in any outsiders during his eight-month tenure as CEO - though they acknowledged Treasury pay restrictions were an issue to attracting outside expertise.

Whitacre's view was that as long as Henderson was CEO, he had the right to pick his own management team, a source close to the board said.

Whitacre said in a statement his reshuffle "would improve accountability and responsibility for market performance in North America and around the world".

"I want to give people more responsibility and authority deeper in the organisation and then hold them accountable," he said.

Announcing Henderson's departure on Tuesday, Whitacre said he planned to work daily at GM's Renaissance Centre HQ in downtown Detroit.

'GM Europe' disbanded in reorganisation