Automaker General Motors, Monday confirmed interim Chief Executive Officer Edward Whitacre Jr. to the CEO post permanently. Whitacre was named interim CEO on December 1, 2009 after Frederick Henderson was ousted by the board from the positions of president and chief executive officer of the company.
Accepting the new role, Whitacre at a press conference held at GM's headquarters said, "Having spent the past few months learning the business, meeting with our employees, customers, suppliers and dealers, and working with the GM leadership team, I was both honored and pleased to accept this role. This is a great company with an even greater future, and I want to be part of it."
Referring to the progress GM made in the past couple of months, Whitacre also expressed the GM board's commitment to pay back in full the U.S. Treasury and the Canadian and Ontario government loans by June.
The reaffirming of Whitacre on a permanent basis ends a seven-week search for a CEO for which GM had also hired a search firm to find a suitable replacement.
Though the automaker took a while to name its permanent CEO, Whitacre, however, has been on a role since he has been named interim CEO on December 1, 2009. Whitacre has since been trying to put a new vigor into the company by building a team around him by promoting a number of executives and hiring new faces such as that of the appointment of two lobbyists in Washington.
Whitacre was appointed chairman of the New GM and took over the position after it emerged from a government-sponsored bankruptcy last July. Whitacre was formerly the chairman and CEO of AT&T from 1990 to 2007, and was with AT&T and its predecessor companies for 44 years. Whitacre also serves on the boards of ExxonMobil Corp. (XOM) and the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. (BNI).
In his 17 years at the helm of AT&T, Whitacre presided over the company's growth from a regional telephone provider to the nation's largest provider of wireless, broadband and traditional phone service through an aggressive string of acquisitions, including the $86 billion purchase of BellSouth. AT&T, formerly Southwestern Bell and then SBC Communications, was actually the smallest of the seven "Baby Bells" spun off in 1984 government-ordered breakup of the national AT&T monopoly.
Whitacre began his career with Southwestern Bell in 1963 as a facility engineer and was elected chairman and CEO of SBC in 1990, after serving as president and chief operating officer since October 1988. In 2005, Whitacre was elected chairman and CEO of AT&T upon its merger with SBC Communications, and retired from the positions in June 2007.
AT&T's San Antonio headquarters building was named "Whitacre Tower" in recognition of Whitacre's 44 years at the company.
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