Whitacre vows to learn about cars as new GM chief

MICHIGAN: Edward E Whitacre Jr built AT&T into the biggest US provider of telephone service over a 43-year-career. By his own admission, he becomes chairman of General Motors, knowing nothing about the auto industry. The 6-foot-4-inch Texan, nicknamed ���Big Ed���, said steering the nation���s largest automaker after bankruptcy is ���a public service.��� People who know him say he can meet GM���s need for the type of transformation he orchestrated at AT&T.

���I don���t know anything about cars,��� Whitacre, 67, said after his appointment. ���A business is a business, and I think I can learn about cars. I���m not that old, and I think the business principles are the same.���

Whitacre���s selection bucks more than a half-century of tradition at GM, where the only non-executives to lead the board since 1937 were interim chairman Kent Kresa and John Smale, who held the job from 1992 through 1995. Whitacre will take the post when Detroit-based GM exits Chapter 11, perhaps by August 31.

���A bachelor���s degree in industrial engineering and record in shaping a ���monolithic��� AT&T into a diversified enterprise make Whitacre a good choice,��� said Jim Hall, principal of 2953 Analytics auto-consulting firm in Birmingham, Michigan.

���He was one of the guys who helped create a new AT&T that wasn���t so dependent on land-line phone service,��� said Hall, a former GM engineer. ���There���s a parallel with General Motors. GM is not now about just making cars. It���s about re-creating itself as a 21st-century car company.

They have to have somebody at the top that understands they have to make a new GM.��� James Kahan, 61, a former AT&T executive, said: ���As a man of action Whitacre won���t sit still. He���ll be fresh air.���