AT&T's former CEO Ed Whitacre joins GM as chairman
DETROIT -- General Motors on Tuesday announced that retired AT&T CEO Edward Whitacre Jr. will become chairman of the "new" GM, handpicked by the government's auto task force to lead the smaller, leaner company once it emerges from bankruptcy.
Whitacre succeeded in turning the smallest of the seven regional Bell telephone companies into a telecommunications giant and accomplishing that in a highly competitive, highly regulated consumer products business. Those skills could help at GM, which is restructuring under government supervision with the help of $50 billion in government loans.
"You have to find someone who is as comfortable knowing consumers and what they want as they are walking the halls of Washington," says Clarke Murphy, head of CEO and Board Services at executive search firm Russell Reynolds Associates. "I think he's a pretty good choice."
Whitacre, 67, told USA TODAY that he was motivated by old-fashioned patriotism to come out of retirement and take the job.
"General Motors is a great company," says Whitacre, who owns two GM SUVs: a Chevy Tahoe and a GMC Yukon. GM "is part of the fabric of this country, and it shouldn't be allowed to go away."
Current interim Chairman Kent Kresa, who was named to the post when President Obama asked former CEO Rick Wagoner to step aside, says Whitacre was on a list of names he provided to the government's autos task force.
"The final decision was the government's, and I am very positive about the way it came out," Kresa said Tuesday.
GM filed for bankruptcy protection June 1 and is attempting to use the process to split itself into a "new" GM and an "old" GM. The old GM will retain parts of the business the company can no longer sustain — plants to be closed, dealers to be shuttered and brands to be divested. It will sell the best assets to the new GM, which will emerge from bankruptcy with a smaller dealer body, workforce and manufacturing footprint.
Whitacre and Kresa, along with current board members Philip Laskawy, Kathryn Marinello, Erroll Davis Jr., E. Neville Isdell and CEO Fritz Henderson will also serve on the new board. The auto task force and GM are searching for four new members, and the United Auto Workers union and the Canadian government will choose one member each, bringing the board count to 13.
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