GMAC May Tap Ex-Citigroup Banker Yastine as New CFO

NEW YORK - GMAC Inc., the U.S.-controlled auto and home lender, is close to naming a chief financial officer and has considered appointing Barbara Yastine, the former CFO for investment banking at Credit Suisse Group AG and Citigroup Inc., three people with knowledge of the search told Bloomberg.

Yastine, 50, is a top prospect because she’s worked before at Citigroup with Michael Carpenter, GMAC’s new CEO, said the people. They declined to be identified because the search is confidential. Detroit-based GMAC is looking for someone to replace James Mackey, the interim CFO since Robert Hull left in March for a private-equity firm.

The process was still winding down as of early this week, according to one person. Gina Proia, a GMAC spokeswoman, declined to comment, and efforts to reach Yastine weren’t successful.

The new finance chief will help Carpenter devise an exit from government bailout programs, which funneled more than $17 billion to the lender and gave the U.S. a 56 percent stake. Carpenter reported the company’s first operating profit since 2007 earlier this week, following an annual loss last year that exceeded $10 billion.

Yastine has been a consultant to Southgate Alternative Investments, the investment firm founded by Carpenter, 63, according to the firm’s Web site. She served as CFO of New York- based Citigroup’s investment bank from 2000 to 2002 when Carpenter ran the business and later was finance chief from 2002 to 2004 at Credit Suisse’s investment bank, the Web site said.

Hull left at the end of March to join Providence Equity Partners, the Rhode Island-based investment firm. He joined GMAC in 2007 from Bank of America Corp., the former employer of Al de Molina, who was replaced by Carpenter as CEO in November.

Yastine attended New York University, where she received an undergraduate degree in journalism and a master’s degree in business administration, according to a 2002 Credit Suisse statement.

Carpenter said during a May 3 conference call that he’d be meeting this week with regulators about how to pay back the U.S., using a combination of tactics that may include an initial public offering. The Congressional Oversight Panel said in March the Treasury should require GMAC “to lay out a clear path to viability or a strategy for fully repaying taxpayers.”

Next week GMAC is changing its corporate name to Ally Financial Inc., but its auto unit will continue to do business under the GMAC name.