As IPO Looms, New GM Chief Pledges to Stay the Course

In tapping longtime telecom executive Daniel Akerson as its next CEO, succeeding Ed Whitacre, GM directors are intent on keeping the automaker on the same, new course a year after it exited bankruptcy, Automotive News reported.

Akerson, an outside director at the automaker since July 2009, will become the fourth CEO at GM in 18 months, and the second consecutive outsider.

And like Whitacre, Akerson, 61, is expected to bring an outsider's zeal for change and results, with no fear of shaking things up at a company often hidebound by bureaucracy.

"I want turmoil; I want excitement," he once told Forbes magazine.

The Wall Street Journal says he's "a blunt-spoken, aggressive competitor."

He can also be an impatient maverick. Once waylaid by a painful gall bladder ailment in Germany in the early 1990s, he pulled the tubes out of his arm, checked himself out of the hospital and immediately flew to the United States. German doctors were not moving fast enough, he complained to Forbes at the time.

Akerson -- an engineering graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy -- said today that he did not anticipate major changes in Whitacre's strategy or approach when he takes over on Sept. 1.

"We share a common vision for the goals and objectives of this company," Akerson told reporters on a conference call. "There are remarkable opportunities ahead for the new GM, and I am honored to lead the company through this next chapter."

Under Whitacre, 68, GM's management ranks and layers have been thinned, with executives holding more authority to speed decision-making. He has made building GM's core brands a priority to accelerate sales growth and overcome lingering taxpayer concerns about the automaker's government bailout.

"We still have important work ahead of us," Akerson said. "But I am confident that we are building the foundation for GM's long-term success."