In this photo provided by General Motors, GM Chairman and CEO Ed Whitacre announces that GM has made its final payment of $5.8 billion to the U.S. Treasury and Export Development Canada, paying back its government loans in full and ahead of schedule April 21, 2010 at the General Motors plant in Fairfax, Kansas
General Motors CEO Ed Whitacre said Thursday that he is stepping down, the same day GM reported that it made a profit of $1.3 billion the second quarter, bringing its half-year earnings to $2.2 billion.
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Dan Akerson, a GM board member who joined in July 2009, when Whitacre took over the post-Chapter 11 GM, will succeed Whitacre Sept. 1.
Akerson will become CEO Sept. 1 and take Whitacre's spot as chairman of the board by the end of the year, GM says.
Whitacre will then leave the world's second-biggest car company behind Toyota Motor.
He said Thursday that the job always was intended to be temporary.
"It was my plan all along ... to help return this company to greatness, and I didn't want to stay a day beyond that," he said during a conference call with reporters and investment analysts.
Akerson said, "Ed and I share a common vision for the company, where it is today and where we hope to take it in the future. Detailing his priorities or his plans for a post-Whitacre GM "would be premature," he said.
He declined to say if he would shake up management. "I have to get my feet on the ground before I discuss that subject." He did acknowledge that he doesn't foresee big changes.
Akerson is managing director at The Carlyle Group, a private global investment firm.
In its earnings report, GM said second-quarter revenue was $33.2 billion, up from $31.5 billion the first quarter.
GM, disclosed for the first time Thursday that it lost $12.9 billion in the second quarter last year and lost $18.9 billion in the first half last year.
Earlier this year, it said it lost $4.3 billion from July 10 through Dec. 31 last year, under so-called "fresh-start" accounting, which it adopted after going through Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization and creating a new company, called General Motors Co. instead of General Motors Corp.
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SOURCE: USA Today
