After reporting profits for two consecutive quarters, General Motors Co. has announced that its CEO Edward E. Whitacre Jr. is to be replaced by Daniel Akerson from 1 September. Mr. Whitacre will remain chairman until December, when he will hand over that title to Mr. Akerson as well.
The announcement was made after GM reported its best results since 2004, with net income of $1.3 billion for the second quarter improving on the $865 million profit made in the first quarter.
The change at the top is part of GM’s strategy to remove the “Government Motors” badge pinned on it by the $50 million bailout that gave the government a 61 percent stake in the largest US automaker.
Whitacre had been willing to remain as CEO until the end of the year, but the GM board felt that introducing the new CEO now would help the upcoming IPO by giving potential investors a clearer picture of the future management team.
Whitacre, who has been CEO only since January, explained that his appointment was always intended to be an interim measure. "At this stage of my career, it was obvious that I was not going to be at GM for the long haul," he said Thursday. "This is something the board and I have been contemplating, literally since I joined GM."
Coincidentally, both the outgoing and incoming CEOs have a background in telecommunications, rather than the automobile industry. Whitaker is a former CEO of AT&T and Akerson, who has been on the GM board since July last year, a former CEO of Nextel.
