'He is the only person that can keep the automotive industry alive in America,' said Marinello, chairman and CEO of Ceridian Corp., an information services company based in Minneapolis. 'Not just keep it alive, but make it the technology and green leader.' During a hearing Thursday before the Senate Banking Committee, Wagoner said he would take the company into bankruptcy if an aid package required GM to meet certain loan conditions by March 31 and it failed to do so. 'The board and Rick have, and always will, consider whatever options are brought forward,' Marinello said Friday. 'We will always be creative, always be open.' Marinello spoke hours after Wagoner made a last-ditch pitch to Congress for emergency aid. She said this week's Senate and House hearings were 'more respectful' than a pair of hearings last month, during which Wagoner and the chief executives of Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC were berated for flying to Capitol Hill in corporate jets. Last time, they left Washington without a deal and were told to come back with detailed plans for how they would spend the money and return to profitability. 'What got across and was respected was that the plan GM put forward by Rick Wagoner was a very aggressive plan, a very well thought-out plan and a clear plan that addressed all the issues,' said Marinello, who joined GM's board in 2007. 'What we are making really clear ... is action has to happen and has to happen quickly.' GM's restructuring plan includes cuts that otherwise would be accomplished by filing for bankruptcy. GM would eliminate up to 31,000 jobs, shut nine plants and renegotiate its 2007 labor contract with the UAW. GM has asked Congress for a $12 billion loan and a $6 billion line of credit that would be tapped if the market downturn persists. The plan also calls for ending corporate jet travel, paying Wagoner a $1 a year salary, closing 1,750 dealers and selling the Saab brand, shrinking Pontiac and talking to dealers about the future of Saturn. Executives also will talk to banks and bond holders about swapping GM debt for equity. The request for federal aid comes amid the lowest level of U.S. auto sales in 26 years and as GM has lost almost $73 billion in the last four years despite several restructurings. Marinello could not predict whether GM will get help. 'What's encouraging is you are hearing certain individuals in Congress and the Senate being very outspoken that we will do something,' she said. 'I am anxiously awaiting something to be done. I can't fathom us sitting by and not acting.' One thing GM won't do is pursue a prepackaged bankruptcy, as has been rumored. 'It's never been done in this breadth and depth,' said Marinello, the former president and CEO of GE Fleet Services, a division of General Electric Co. 'It's extraordinarily nave from a business perspective to think it would work. The somewhat fantasy of a prepack concept, that you could package it up and in 30-60 days be done? That's not how it works.' The board and Wagoner are trying to avoid a Chapter 11 filing. 'It's expensive, it's lengthy and it obviously has an enormous cloud over it from a consumer's perspective,' she said. Filing Chapter 11 would compound the credit crunch that has prohibited consumers from buying cars. 'You would virtually shut down any kind of hope of bringing sales up from an economic-stimulus perspective,' she said. Emergency federal aid is the least expensive and quickest solution, she said. 'What it does is gets you quickly into a viable, positive situation where the auto companies can actually earn the level of sales that will allow them to move forward.' Besides, she said, GM had shed $9 billion in costs before the Wall Street crisis hit this fall. 'We are now accomplishing everything we would have over a long, painful, expensive period of time in a bankruptcy,' she said. 'All that's left to happen is for somebody in government to step up, take a stand, and say 'yes, give these companies a bridge loan so that they can remain viable and technology and green leaders.'' She said Wagoner deserves to stay as CEO of the 100-year-old company and that she supports him 'four score times a trillion' because of the savings he has achieved, and how he has persevered through bad products produced a decade earlier, wrested landmark health care savings from the UAW and managed to 'sock away' $100 billion in pension and health care benefits for retired workers. 'He's one of the most experienced, classy CEOs I have ever seen in my life,' she said. 'Nobody's perfect. Yes, he's made mistakes. So have all the CEOs and chairs of all the banks. I have made mistakes. But he is somebody always willing to stare those issues in the face and change accordingly.' Wagoner has been successful reducing fixed costs and shrinking GM as much as possible, though he has been restricted from making further cuts by UAW obligations and dealer franchise agreements, said auto analyst Erich Merkle of Crowe Horwath. 'No one could manage this downturn. Nobody,' Merkle said. 'He's done an admirable job of contracting General Motors. It's just not fast enough.' Marinello has heard from people perplexed that auto industry CEOs have been held to a higher standard than financial institutions that benefited from the $700 billion Wall Street bailout. 'Yet you put the (Big Three) CEOs in front of Congress and, frankly, berate and humiliate them for several days,' she said. 'And they still haven't made a decision whether to give them any money.' You can reach Robert Snell at (313) 222-2028 or rsnelldteom.