Telephone and Non-Car Guy and Now GM CEO Receives $9 Million Pay Package

DETROIT, Sept 10, 2010; David Bailey and Kevin Krolick writing for Reuters that GM will pay new Chief Executive Dan Akerson $9 million in cash salary and stock grants, the U.S. government-owned automaker said on Friday.

Akerson succeeded Ed Whitacre as CEO on Sept. 1 and received a pay package that matched Whitacre's. His appointment, which was announced last month, came in an abrupt shake-up that made him the fourth chief executive of the automaker in the past 18 months.

GM's board named Akerson as Whitacre's replacement in August less than a week before the automaker filed plans for an IPO with U.S. securities regulators. Akerson is to succeed Whitacre as chairman of the board at the end of the year.

Akerson will receive $1.7 million per year in cash salary, $5.3 million of stock per year to be parceled out over three years starting next September, and $2 million of restricted stock, GM said in a filing with U.S. securities regulators.

Whitacre, who remains chairman through the end of 2010, will be paid $300,000 for his work on the board for the last four months of the year, GM said.

GM has filed for an initial public offering, expected in November, that would allow the U.S. government to reduce its nearly 61 percent ownership stake in the automaker.

Akerson's appointment as chairman and CEO of GM came after Whitacre declined to stay on as the leader of the automaker for a longer period of time after the IPO.

A veteran telecommunications executive, Akerson was serving as head of buyouts for private equity firm The Carlyle Group when the U.S. Treasury selected him as a GM director. He severed ties with Carlyle to take the top spot at GM.

Executives who have worked with Akerson describe the former U.S. Navy officer as hard-charging and more detail-oriented than Whitacre, who had commuted to Detroit from his home in Texas during his stint as CEO.

Like Whitacre, Akerson has been an outspoken critic of the slow-moving culture that defined GM before its bankruptcy and promised to shake things up.

As a recipient of government funds, GM's executive pay remains under the oversight of a federal watchdog. The automaker said the federal regulator had approved the proposed terms of Akerson's compensation on Wednesday.

Editing for Reuters by Richard Chang and Carol Bishopric