Elon Law Distinguished Practitioner in Residence John Englar recently completed over three years of service on the Board of Directors of Delphi Corporation, overseeing the largest industrial company reorganization in U.S. history prior to the General Motors reorganization in 2009.
Englar has taught upper level business law courses at Elon Law since January 2008, and prior to joining Elon taught in the MBA programs at Duke and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
Delphi announced on October 6 that it had completed its reorganization under Chapter 11 of U.S. Bankruptcy Law. Filed in October 2005, Delphi’s case was characterized by its unusual efforts to re-draw the terms of its union contracts. Having concluded that it, and the U.S. auto industry, could not remain competitive under the contract terms, Delphi sought to restructure these relations and other aspects of its business in bankruptcy after efforts to negotiate new contracts failed.
Englar commented that his service on the board was rewarding. “Participating on the Delphi Board during its reorganization was an opportunity to be part of an historic change process,” Englar said. “Much of the turmoil suffered by the auto industry in the last few years, and the hopefully positive consequences flowing from the restructurings of much of the industry, can be traced directly to the decisions made by Delphi’s Board and its management. The fact that these necessary changes inflicted pain on many in our society made this responsibility all the more difficult. We have, however, obtained our objective of a healthy and competitive Delphi in a re-structured auto industry.”
“Serving on the Governance, Nominating, Compensation and Audit Committees at Delphi afforded me an intense exposure to the many issues the company faced during its four year reorganization,” Englar continued. “All of these translate well into the law school classroom.”
As is often the case, Delphi’s reorganization has resulted in a completely new ownership structure, with a new group of directors replacing those who have held leadership positions throughout the reorganization.