Former AT&T Chief to Be G.M.’s New Chairman
Edward E. Whitacre Jr., the former head of AT&T who built the company into a telephone giant through a series of mergers, has been chosen to be chairman of the new, slimmed-down version of General Motors when it emerges from bankruptcy protection.
General Motors said Tuesday that Mr. Whitacre is expected to become chair of the reorganized entity, which is being called New G.M., this summer.
“I am honored to be able to serve G.M. at this critical juncture and take part in its reinvention,” Mr. Whitacre said in a news release.
Mr. Whitacre had led AT&T or its predecessor companies for 17 years before he announced his retirement in April 2007. He is widely credited with reshaping the nation’s telecom industry, in part through a series of multibillion-dollar merger deals, including AT&T’s $86 billion acquisition of BellSouth.
He sits on the boards of ExxonMobil and Burlington Northern Santa Fe.
Kent Kresa, who is serving as G.M.’s interim chairman, called Mr. Whitcare’s appointment as the next chair a “very auspicious beginning” for the automaker’s next incarnation. “We look forward to working with him to complete the reinvention of GM and maximize the enormous potential of this new enterprise,” he said Tuesday.
General Motors filed for bankruptcy protection last week with a plan to split itself into two parts, one of which would keep operating as a smaller automaker, in which the United States government would initially be the majority owner. The other part of the company, known as OldCo, would house the businesses that it plans to sell or shut down.
Frederick Henderson, who became G.M.’s chief executive after the Obama administration pushed out his predecessor, is expected to continue as chief of the new G.M. Albert Koch of the turnaround firm AlixPartners will oversee the wind-down of G.M.’s unwanted assets as chief restructuring officer.
Also on Tuesday, G.M. announced a partial list of who would serve on its post-bankruptcy board of directors. It said that Mr. Whitacre, Mr. Kresa and Mr. Henderson would sit on the board along with current board members Philip A. Laskawy, Kathryn V. Marinello, Erroll B. Davis, Jr. and E. Neville Isdell.
G.M. is still looking for four additional directors, and the Canadian government and the United Autoworkers will each have a representative on the board, bringing its total membership to 13.
dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/09/former-att-chief-to-be-gms-new-chairman/