By AP
DETROIT –
General Motors Chairman and interim CEO Ed Whitacre is dropping the interim from his title as the automaker's CEO.
Whitacre announced the change this morning at GM's Detroit headquarters.
The 68-year-old Whitacre had been GM's interim CEO since last month, when the company's board ousted former CEO Fritz Henderson. He says GM's board asked him to become permanent CEO last week.
Whitacre is the former CEO of AT&T. He was named chairman of GM
last summer after the automaker emerged from bankruptcy.
Whitacre has said he wants to increase GM's sales and market share while shifting the company's focus from trucks to cars.
He's also aiming to repay $8.1 billion in U.S. and Canadian government loans by the end of June.