General Motors has recently selected Chris Liddell - Microsoft Corp’s chief finance officer - as vice chairman and CFO to replace Ray Young. Liddell, age 51, has been CFO at Microsoft Corporation since May 2005 but is leaving his position there as of December 31st. Despite his demotion, Ray Young is staying with the company as vice president of international operations; leading the unit’s finance projects, with additional responsibilities to be “clarified in the near term,” GM said. Kenneth Feinberg, the U.S. pay czar, placed salary caps on the financially-assisted company which affected GM executive salaries by 31 percent and allowed only one senior manager - apart from then CEO Fritz Henderson - to receive more than $500,000 in 2009. GM has not yet acknowledged that executive. Chairman and interim CEO for GM, Ed Whitacre, expressed last month that the salary cap made hiring from the outside challenging, and urged Feinberg to re-evaluate the restrictions. Soon after, the pay czar said he would be open to flexing the limits for new hires.