Edward Whitacre Jr. Biography
(Former Chairman & CEO of General Motors)
Birthday: November 4, 1941 (Scorpio)
Born In: Ennis
Edward Earl Whitacre, Jr. is a former chairman and CEO of General Motors. It was his position as the former chairman of the board and chief executive officer with SBC (Southwestern Bell Corporation) that established him as a world renowned executive. He worked towards making it a diversified, global communications brand and swiftly increased its growth as a national communications provider and took it through lucrative acquisitions like, Pacific Telesis Group (1997) for $17 billion, Southern New England Telecommunications (1998) for $4.4 billion, Comcast Cellular (1999), Ameritech (1999) for $62 billion and Bell-South (2000). Under his leadership, the company was named the World's Most Admired Telecommunications Company by Fortune magazine for the 6th consecutive year in 2003; it also named SBC as America's Most Admired Telecommunications Company for the 7th time in the 8 years. As Whitacre created long-standing worth for company shareowners by providing steadfast and inventive telecommunication services, he was once named among the Top 25 Executives of the Year by BusinessWeek and was listed as one of the Best CEOs in America by Worth magazine—one of the many accolades that he achieved in his career.