US auto giant General Motors interim chief executive Ed Whitacre is to be named permanent CEO and chairman, the CNBC business news network said Monday, quoting company sources.
Whitacre stepped in as the temporary CEO after Fritz Henderson stepped down from the position last December as the number one US auto company reeled from the financial crisis.
GM said on its website that Whitacre, who was installed as chairman when the auto giant emerged from bankruptcy last year with US government support, was to host a press conference on Monday “to provide updates on GM business activities.”
Whitacre, in announcing Henderson’s resignation on December 1, said he had taken over the role CEO while an international search for a new president and CEO began immediately.
A former chairman and CEO of telecom giant AT&T, Whitacre was installed to the posts in a new company board controlled in large part by the US government under GM’s bankruptcy plan.
“I remain more convinced than ever that our company is on the right path and that we will continue to be a leader in offering the worldwide buying public the highest quality, highest value cars and trucks,” he said then.
Whitacre was described in a recent Wall Street Journal report as a hard-charging Texan with a penchant for killing rattlesnakes for sport.
He is known for taking over companies and imposing his will on its employees, starting at the top, the report said.
Henderson took the helm at GM in late March last year as the auto giant was headed toward bankruptcy and living off massive aid from the US government.
He replaced Rick Wagoner, who was forced out of the job by the administration of President Barack Obama.
GM has been undergoing massive restructuring since the government gave it the kiss of life.
In the latest move, GM Europe announced last week it was to close an entire car production plant in Belgium, making 2,600 workers redundant and ramping up an already tense climate of industrial unrest.
It is the second major factory closure announced by carmakers in Europe this month, after Italy’s Fiat acted to shut a plant in Sicily.
Europe-wide restructuring at GM’s Opel unit is expected to shed 8,300 jobs from a total of almost 50,000 — half of which are located in Germany.
