DETROIT — In a surprise development, General Motors’ chairman and chief executive, Edward E. Whitacre Jr., announced Thursday that he would step down as chief executive on Sept. 1 and be succeeded by Daniel F. Akerson, a G.M. board member and a managing director of the Carlyle Group.Mr. Whitacre, 68, said he would stay on as chairman until the end of the year, when Mr. Akerson would assume that role as well.“I believe we’ve accomplished what we set out to do,” Mr. Whitacre said. “We’re going to have a smooth seamless transition here.”
Mr. Akerson, 61, will become the fourth chief executive at the nation’s largest automaker in less than two years. Rick Wagoner, who had been chief executive since 2000 and chairman since 2003, was asked to resign in March 2009 by President Obama’s automotive task force. He was followed by another long-time G.M. executive, Fritz Henderson, who led the company through its bankruptcy restructuring but was then replaced in November by Mr. Whitacre.
The announcement came shortly after General Motors reported that it earned $1.3 billion in the second quarter and cited sustained progress in rebuilding operations after emerging from its government-sponsored bankruptcy last year.
Mr. Whitacre, a former chief of AT&T who came out of retirement to lead G.M., had previously said he would leave once the company stabilized its finances. But the timing of his announcement was unexpected, as was the choice of Mr. Akerson, a former chairman of Nextel Communications, as his successor.
Mr. Akerson said on a conference call that he did not anticipate major changes in strategy when he takes over. “We share a common vision for the goals and objectives of this company,” he said.
He is currently a managing director at the Carlyle Group, the giant private equity firm, where he is a senior executive of its buyout business. Before joining Carlyle, Mr. Akerson was a longtime telecommunications executive, having worked as chief financial officer at MCI and as the chairman and chief executive of XO Communications, where he supervised a turnaround of the company.
“We still have important work ahead of us,” Mr. Akerson said, “but I am confident that we are building the foundation for G.M.’s long-term success.”
Mr. Whitacre came to G.M. claiming to know little about automobiles and describing himself as “not a car guy.” But he made himself a public face for the company by appearing in several ad campaigns highlighting the quality of G.M.’s vehicles. He was criticized by some members of Congress for an ad in which he claimed that G.M. had repaid its government loans “in full,” even though the payment represented only a portion of the taxpayer money invested in G.M.
Under Mr. Whitacre, G.M. increased its market share in the United States and the average amount that buyers paid for vehicles, two big contributors to this year’s profits. He shuffled executives several times until he created a lineup of managers that he felt was best-suited to lead the turnaround.
He also pushed G.M. to simplify its operations and focus on his oft-repeated mantra: “Design, build, and sell the world’s best vehicles.” Anything that did not directly contribute to that goal “is dead now, or it’s on its way out,” he said on multiple occasions.
Mr. Whitacre, like his successor, came from a telecommunications background. An engineer who joined Southwestern Bell in 1963, he worked his way up to become the company’s chief executive in 1990. Mr. Whitacre then transformed the company into SBC Communications, and went on an acquisitions spree that included buying AT&T in 2005, with the company assuming its name. He retired in 2007, and was then chosen by the auto task force two years later to lead G.M.’s restructuring.
The quarterly profit reported on Thursday marked G.M.’s strongest financial performance since 2004, and set the stage for the automaker to file for an initial public offering, possible as soon as Friday. It was G.M.’s second consecutive quarterly profit.
The automaker’s results were a marked improvement over the $865 million profit in the first quarter. Revenue also rose in the quarter, to $33.2 billion, from $31.5 billion in the first. G.M. did not report second-quarter results a year ago because it spend part of the period reorganizing under bankruptcy protection.
The second-quarter profit was driven by strong results in G.M.’s core North American business, which had lost money for several years leading up to its bankruptcy filing.
G.M. said it had earnings before interest and taxes of $1.6 billion in North America during the quarter, a 33 percent improvement over its first quarter performance. The company’s European unit lost $200 million in the quarter, and its other international operations earned $700 million.
