Ed Whitacre Is Talking To Someone

Cammy Corrigan
by Cammy Corrigan

GM’s New Chairman and CEO, Ed Whitacre may not be talking to the press about his plans for the state-owned automaker, but he’s talking to someone. Reuters reports that Alan Mulally, CEO of Ford, has already had a chat with GM’s chairman and CEO, Ed Whitacre. Mulally didn’t disclose what they talked about, but did mention his reasons as to why they had the chat. “You want to be supportive because we have a lot of industry issues that we work together,” Mulally said, “He’s reaching out just the way that I did when I came in.”

Mulally also mentioned how he reached out to Rick Wagoner (remember him?) when Mulally came aboard the good ship Ford. The report also goes on to say that in October, Steve Rattner said that Rick Wagoner had warned the administration against bringing in an outsider when they sought his resignation. Rattner bases this assertion on daily conversations between Wagoner and Mulally. Naturally, Mulally gets a bit hazy here. “I don’t remember it that way,” Mulally said. “I will say that when I arrived I reached out to all of the industry insiders, including Rick, and Rick was very very supportive.” Is this indicative of Alan Mulally’s “Work together” philosophy? Or was he trying to get a handle on the competition? I’m guessing the latter.

Cammy Corrigan
Cammy Corrigan

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  • Porschespeed Porschespeed on Dec 11, 2009

    David, I started post-Carter. I try to leave Clinton's surplus out - over 2 terms, he was pretty national debt neutral, depending on some tiny percentage accounting - but, best we've done in the last 25 years... Bush was a deficit and national debt disaster.

  • Mtypex Mtypex on Dec 11, 2009

    GWB for GM prez!!! Yeah!

  • Robert.Walter Robert.Walter on Dec 11, 2009

    (sorry for the triple posting ... some kind of computer/wi-fi issue here ... and no edit/delete button on TTAC.

  • DetroitsaRiot DetroitsaRiot on Dec 13, 2009

    Ed will make GM profitable with a total GM employee count of 500 and one light bulb lit in the headquarters building in Det.

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