Harry J. Wilson, a former Goldman Sachs financier who helped the Obama administration overhaul General Motors as part of a bailout plan, is putting himself up for a seat on the GM board.

Wilson assisted the Obama administration in its attempt to help the U.S. auto industry survive the 2008 financial crisis that led to the Great Recession, and this time he is attempting to help GM with the assistance of four major hedge funds in an attempt to get the company to buy back $8 billion worth of shares by next year, according to a New York Times report.

The automaker is in the midst of one of its biggest safety crises as it is forced to recalls millions of vehicles. It’s certainly better off than when it had to be bailed out by taxpayers when the recession hit and then finally returned to public markets in 2010.

Wilson is backed by hedge funds including Appaloosa Management and Hayman Capital Management, who will own about a 2 percent stake of the company as part of the arrangement, and Wilson will receive a share of the profits from the investment.

The news boosted GM shares by about 4 percent on Tuesday.

Wilson acknowledged that the company had come a long way since the bailout, but the stock price of the company has been largely stagnant under current leadership, and he said in a recent interview that the company should be a world-class performer “on any metric,” according to the Times report.

GM is dealing with safety issues involving defective ignition switches in millions of its smaller vehicles, leading to 80 recalls last year that covered 30 million vehicles. This cost the company $3 billion to compensate accident victims and fix the vehicles, as well as reorganize safety and engineering operations teams.

This recall hammered the company’s bottom line, as GM reported a 31 percent in net income from 2013 to 2014 — $3.99 billion to $2.8 billion.