General Motors has hired Chris Liddell, the chief financial officer of Microsoft, as its new finance chief, filling a key position with the car-maker’s highest-profile hiring since its July bankruptcy.

The move, announced yesterday, brings another well- known industry outsider to GM’s shifting senior leadership team at a time when the car-maker has been struggling to close deals to sell key assets and regain sales momentum in the US market.

GM has been operating since July with a new board vetted by the Obama administration and, since the start of December, under a new chief executive in Ed Whitacre. – (Reuters)