Hoglund Will Run GM’s New Saturn Unit

General Motors Corp. on Monday named William E. Hoglund, 50, president of its new Saturn Corp. subsidiary. Hoglund will take over Saturn in the wake of the death of 54-year-old Joseph J. Sanchez, who died Jan. 26, only two weeks after he was named president of the new company.

On Jan. 8, GM announced the formation of Saturn, a $5-billion company that will be charged with the development and production of a new line of small cars that will be cost-competitive with Japanese imports. GM hopes that Saturn will develop a fresh approach to the car-building process that can then be used throughout the rest of GM’s manufacturing operations.

Hoglund, GM’s group executive in charge of its corporate operating staffs, is best known in Detroit for running GM’s Pontiac division. He was general manager of Pontiac from 1980 until last summer, when he was named to his current post.

Still, most of his career at GM has been spent in finance. Before taking over at Pontiac, Hoglund was GM’s comptroller, and had also spent time on GM’s financial staff in New York. One of Hoglund’s first tasks will be to decide where to build Saturn’s assembly and manufacturing complex. GM says it wants to choose a site for Saturn within about 90 days, and virtually every major industrial state in the country is now trying to woo GM.