Topic: Edward Whitacre

Edward Earl "Ed" Whitacre, Jr. (born November 4, 1941) is Chairman and former CEO of General Motors. He is also a former chairman of the board and chief executive officer of AT&T Inc., previously SBC. He served as national president of the Boy Scouts of America from 1998 to 2000. On September 1, 2010, Whitacre stepped down as CEO, and will retire as chairman of the board by the end of 2010.

Whitacre was born in Ennis, Texas. He began his career with Southwestern Bell in 1963 as a facility engineer. He is a member of Delta Tau Delta fraternity and graduated from Texas Tech University with a bachelor's degree in industrial engineering.

In October 1988, Whitacre became president and chief operating officer of regional bell operating company, Southwestern Bell Corporation. Two years later, Whitacre became chairman of the board and chief executive officer. In 1995, Southwestern Bell Corporation changed its name to SBC Communications. Whitacre led SBC through a series of mergers and acquisitions in building the largest provider of both local long distance telephone services and wireless service (through its Cingular division) in the United States. These acquisitions included Pacific Telesis (1997), SNET (1998), Comcast Cellular (1999), Ameritech (1999) and AT&T (2005), from which the post-merger company took its name, as well as the 2006 acquisition of Bell South.