GM chooses Whitacre as permanent CEO

DETROIT, Jan. 25 (UPI) -- U.S. automaker General Motors Co. said Monday it would switch Chief Executive Officer Edward Whitacre Jr.'s status from interim to permanent.

Whitacre, 68, who also serves as the company's chairman, said, "I was both honored and pleased to accept this role, so I'm going to do it for a while."

Industry analysts expected the car company to stick with Whitacre after the ouster of CEO Fritz Henderson in December led to a series of executive shake ups as Whitacre fashioned a management team to his liking, The New York Times reported.

The federal government picked Whitacre to replace Rick Wagoner as chairman in June as GM sank into bankruptcy. In December, Whitacre ousted Henderson who had taken over Wagoner's CEO responsibilities, saying the company needed to accelerate changes.

He originally claimed he did not want the CEO's job. "But as so often happens, you get in the middle of something and you start to like the people, you make some leadership changes, you feel comfortable with … You sort of get pulled in," Whitacre said.