General Motors Co. has hired the chief financial officer of Microsoft Corp. to take over the troubled automaker's books, tapping a cost-cutter who is now widely seen as a potential candidate to be GM's next CEO.

Chris Liddell will become GM's finance chief starting next year and report directly to interim CEO Ed Whitacre Jr., who also is a newcomer to the automaker. The 51-year-old Liddell is the first permanent top manager hired from outside the company since it left bankruptcy protection in July. Whitacre, who says he wants to shake up GM's slow and rigid culture, has pushed out top executives and promoted younger managers in recent weeks.

GM's announcement Monday of Liddell's appointment led several industry analysts to say he may be trying out to take the permanent CEO position, perhaps as early as next year. The hiring also shows that GM can attract top talent despite its uncertain future and pay limits imposed by its majority stockholder, the U.S. government.

Liddell replaces GM CFO Ray Young, who was transferred to GM's operations in China. The former head of the government's autos task force wrote that GM had the weakest finance operation that task force members had seen in a major company.

Liddell, a former investment banker and Oxford University graduate, brings from his tenure with Microsoft a reputation for holding down costs and stockpiling cash. Microsoft announced last month he was stepping down to pursue jobs above the level of CFO.

The New Zealand native is a likely candidate for the top position at GM and could be taking the CFO job to get to know the automotive business, management experts say.

Whitacre, who is 68 and the former head of AT&T Inc., became interim CEO earlier this month but says he doesn't want the job.

Jeffrey A. Sonnenfeld, a professor at the Yale School of Management, says it's hard to imagine Liddell leaving a strong global icon like Microsoft for an "eroded pillar of an old economy" without being dangled an opportunity to run it.

GM spokesman Chris Preuss said he does not know if Liddell is a candidate for the top job. He also said he does not know Liddell's pay package, which could be controlled by government-imposed pay limits.

If he gets the CEO job, Liddell would be the first foreign-born GM CEO in the 101-year-old company's history, said John Heitmann, a professor at the University of Dayton who has taught classes on automobile history.

GM's culture once was very American-centric, but a new globalized GM now would accept a leader from another country, Heitmann said.