GM Expected to Move Wagoner to No. 2 Post : Automotive: Chief financial officer today to be named head of North American operations.

DETROIT — The most significant personnel changes at General Motors Corp. since outside directors deposed top managers and installed Jack Smith as president in 1992 are expected today when GM’s board meets in New York.

G. Richard Wagoner Jr., the 41-year-old chief financial officer and head of worldwide purchasing, is likely to be elevated to the No. 2 job in the world’s largest industrial corporation. As president of North American operations, he would run GM’s largest unit, responsible for its domestic vehicle business and nearly 80% of itsrevenue.

It is a job Smith has been handling himself since he was assigned by the board to stop the company’s billion-dollar losses in its car and truck business in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

“He’s clearly been successful at getting the company out of the financial mess it was in when he took over,” said Furman Selz Inc.’s Maryann Keller, an automotive financial analyst and author of two books that chronicled GM’s struggles and quest for recovery.

With Smith’s cost-cutting campaign and the surging demand for new cars and trucks, GM’s North American operations made $511 million in the first quarter of 1994 and is expected to finish the year in the black.

“Now he’s going to start to make significant decisions about who will be on the front lines” and focus more on a strategic role, Keller said.

GM declined to comment about the expected management changes.

Wagoner joined GM’s treasurer’s office in 1977 and has moved through several finance posts before becoming director of strategic business planning for the former Chevrolet-Pontiac-GM of Canada Group in 1988. Less than a year later he became finance vice president of GM Europe (Smith was then president) and in 1991 was named president and managing director of GM’s Brazilian operations.