dan Archives | AutoDepot

Report: GM CEO Dan Akerson earned $2.5 million in 2010

Filed under: GM, Earnings/Financials

Despite only holding the reins of General Motors for the last four months of 2010, company CEO Dan Akerson received $2.5 million in compensation last year. Akerson took over the post from Ed Whitacre on Sept. 1, after Whitacre stepped down. According to The Detroit News, Akerson was paid $566,667 in salary from GM and a further $1.76 million in stock awards. Not bad for four months’ work.

Akerson’s earnings are subject to review by the federal government, since they still own a 32 percent share of the company. For 2011, Akerson won’t get a raise, which means he’ll earn $9 million this year, the same amount Ed Whitacre would have been paid had he made it an entire year.

Akerson was at the helm for GM’s IPO in November, and helped the company close out 2010 posting its biggest profit in ten years.

[Source: The Detroit News]

Report: GM CEO Dan Akerson earned $2.5 million in 2010 originally appeared on Autoblog on Sat, 23 Apr 2011 17:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Continue reading “Report: GM CEO Dan Akerson earned $2.5 million in 2010”

Report: CFO Liddell leaving GM, Treasurer Dan Ammann named replacement

Filed under: Hirings/Firings/Layoffs, GM

GM Executives

General Motors has announced that Chris Liddell (above left), the company’s vice chairman and chief financial officer, is leaving the automaker. Liddell joined GM in January 2010 and was instrumental in guiding the manufacturer through its recent initial public offering. At this point, the reasons for Liddell’s departure remain unclear.

According to Automotive News, Liddell was initially viewed as one possible successor to Ed Whitacre as CEO of GM, though that changed when Whitacre unexpectedly announced his plans to retire.

Since then, Dan Akerson has been picked to lead GM.

Dan Ammann (above right), who currently serves as the automaker’s treasurer, will succeed Liddell. Ammann has been with GM for less than a year, having joined the company in March of 2010. Before joining the automotive industry, he served as the managing director and head of industrials investment banking at Morgan Stanley for four years. Hit the jump for the full press release.

[Sources: General Motors, Automotive News – sub. req.]

Continue reading Report: CFO Liddell leaving GM, Treasurer Dan Ammann named replacement

Report: CFO Liddell leaving GM, Treasurer Dan Ammann named replacement originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 10 Mar 2011 13:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Continue reading “Report: CFO Liddell leaving GM, Treasurer Dan Ammann named replacement”

Speed details new shows with Adam Carolla and Dan Neil

Filed under: Etc.

Adam Carolla The Speed Channel is approaching the 15th anniversary of its original air date and apparently its going to get much more aggressive with its content in the coming years. Right now, Speed has 20 new shows in development and six of those are ready to show up in your DVR in 2011.

We know that Adam Carolla is working on a show that would be an automotive version of The Best Damn Sports Show Period. Other items in the works include a series of specials with Jay Leno, a reality series based on Gran Turismo 5 (produced in cooperation with Sony and Nissan) and a Gymkhana program to be helmed by The Fast and the Furious Producer/DIrector Adam Cohen.

Those represent part of the growing projects currently under development. These six new shows are ready to by slotted into the lineup (titles subject to change):

–Car Warriors: Think Joes vs Pros but for car construction. A team of average folks square off against all-star builders and their work will be judged by George Barris, Jimmy Shine and Mad Mike Martin.

–American Truckers: Rob Mariani talks about iconic rigs, amazing routes and unique cargo tales. Kind of a niche audience here but the “iconic rigs” could be interesting.

–Car Science: The producers of Sports Science and Fight Science have turned their attention to automobiles.

–Speedmakers: Surprisingly not a Breaking Bad rip-off, but an examination of anything that makes speed possible. The show will examine the Daytona International Speedway, go behind the scenes at Aston Martin and will generally focus on engineering feats designed to maximize speed.

–Ticket to Ride with Dan Neil: Pulitzer-prize winner Dan Neil turns his column into a television show. If Speed lets him handle the writing, this one could prove quite interesting.

–The 10: This one is for the NASCAR fans. The 10 will highlight the best that NASCAR has served up over the years with topics such as Most Bizarre Finishes, All-Time Races, Throw-downs and Closest Calls.

[Source: Speed]

Continue reading Speed details new shows with Adam Carolla and Dan Neil

Speed details new shows with Adam Carolla and Dan Neil originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 16 Dec 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Continue reading “Speed details new shows with Adam Carolla and Dan Neil”

Report: Adam Carolla, Dan Neil to host Speed Channel pilot

Filed under: Etc., Celebrities

Top Gear USA just not doing it for you? Well, here’s some potentially good news: Speed Channel has reportedly inked a deal with Mandt Bros. Productions to pilot a new automotive television series (currently untitled) hosted by Adam Carolla, Pulitzer-winning journalist Dan Neil, former NBA ‘baller John Salley and Matt Farah from The Smoking Tire.

Consider our interest piqued by the cast alone. We’ve seen Carolla do his thing – including witnessing the taping of the un-aired pilot for the defunct NBC Top Gear project, which has nothing to do with the current iteration on History – and he definitely knows and loves cars.

Moving past the headline-generating Adam Carolla, we’ve long been fans of Dan Neil, and John Salley was rather good on The Best Damn Sports Show Period. Finally, Farah has carved out a nice niche and has garnered a fan base of his own on The Smoking Tire.

As far as the show’s format goes, it sounds similar to the Top Gear model with “news and conversation centered around cars, as well as pre-recorded features shot on the road.” It could be interesting, but we’ll take our usual wait-and-see approach…

[Source: Variety]

Report: Adam Carolla, Dan Neil to host Speed Channel pilot originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 13 Dec 2010 14:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Continue reading “Report: Adam Carolla, Dan Neil to host Speed Channel pilot”

Monterey 2010: Dan Gurney honored at 2010 Motorsports Reunion

Filed under: Motorsports, Classics, Celebrities

Dan Gurney tribute

Dan Gurney Tribute at the 2010 Monterey Motorsports Reunion – Click above for high-res image gallery

Dan Gurney is one of America’s most accomplished motorsports personalities. Drawn together for this year’s Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion were a couple dozen examples of the cars that helped transforme Gurney into a living legend. Dan got behind the wheel of over 50 different types of cars during his 312-race driving career. His All American Racers (AAR) team was responsible for creating and campaigning some 157 more race cars piloted by 66 different drivers over a period of about 35 years. Gurney’s touch was felt in Formula 1, sports cars, NASCAR, Indy, Trans Am, Can-Am, Formula Ford and Formula 5000.

Click through the gallery and you’ll see cars like the dark blue Eagle Gurney-Weslake V-12, which is regarded as one of the most beautiful Grand Prix cars ever built. The Henry Ford Museum also shipped out the same red Ford GT40 Mk IV that Gurney and A.J. Foyt drove to victory in the 1967 24 Hours of Le Mans. That win marks only All-American victory in the legendary 24-hour enduro’s storied history. When Gurney took to the winner’s podium after the race, he spontaneously shook his congratulatory magnum of champagne and used it to spray everybody within range. That victory celebration has been copied by countless racers ever since.

Other highlights from the gallery include some of the Eagles that played major roles at Indianapolis in the 1960s and 1970s, as well as the Toyota GTP Eagles that defined that era of IMSA Sports car racing. There’s also his Formula 1 Porsche; his game-changing, rear-engined Indy 500 Lotus-Ford; the 1960 “Birdcage” Maserati that he and Stirling Moss drove to victory in a rainy and fog-shrouded Nürburgring 1000 km race; his 1963 NASCAR Riverside 500 winner; the Can-Am “McLeagle” and a 1970 Trans Am series AAR ‘Cuda just to name a few. Click any image below to see the whole gallery, and be sure to check out the rest of our ongoing Monterey 2010 coverage.

Gallery: Dan Gurney Tribute at the 2010 Monterey Motorsports Reunion

Monterey 2010: Dan Gurney honored at 2010 Motorsports Reunion originally appeared on Autoblog on Sun, 15 Aug 2010 15:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Continue reading “Monterey 2010: Dan Gurney honored at 2010 Motorsports Reunion”

Dan Akerson: New GM CEO a car guy after all?

Filed under: Hirings/Firings/Layoffs, GM

The announcement today that General Motors will soon be welcoming its fourth CEO in just 14 months was startling news, but the real unanswered question is just who is Dan Akerson? We’ve already told you what his business chops are and it’s clear the man can run a lemonade stand, but there’s virtually no other information available out there besides his resume. And as for pics, the entirety of the internet has but one to offer, which is Akerson’s glamor shot as a member of GM’s board of directors. Flattering? No. Looks like a high school principal’s year book picture.

Well, we dug a little and found some interesting info on one Mr. Daniel F. Akerson. For one, he lives in McLean, Virginia and is reportedly an avid golfer. Ok, not too surprising, as most corporate executives can swing a club. How about this: He’s said to be worth an estimated $190 million. Yeah, CEOing is a good gig if you can get it. Also, he currently drives a Cadillac CTS.

Finally, we’re told that Mr. Akerson’s first car was an MGB roadster, which he quickly traded in for a 1970 Oldsmobile Cutlass. Now, we don’t have confirmation on which Cutlass he had, and it makes a difference. The 1970 Cutlass was nothing special, unless you’re talking about the 442, which was a legitimate muscle car. The fact that Akerson first had an MGB makes us hopeful that he is a car guy after all and that the Olds in question was the 442… or at least was powered by a Rocket V8 of some sort.

Does the CEO of General Motors need to be a car guy? Not really. Ford CEO Alan Mullaly has never been considered a “car guy,” which didn’t stop him from righting Dearborn’s sinking ship. Still, enthusiasts might take comfort in the fact that the man running one of this industry’s most important companies knows his way around a four-barrel carb.

And Dan, a little advice: Trade up to a CTS-V Coupe. What’s $190 million good for if you’re not going to use it?

[Source: GM, DavidSheperson via Twitter]

Dan Akerson: New GM CEO a car guy after all? originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 12 Aug 2010 19:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Continue reading “Dan Akerson: New GM CEO a car guy after all?”

Introducing Dan Akerson, the next Chairman and CEO of General Motors

Filed under: Etc., Hirings/Firings/Layoffs, GM

Another round of CEO Musical Chairs is being played at General Motors.

When Daniel F. Akerson officially begins his tenure as GM’s chief executive officer on September 1st, he will be the fourth person to sit in that chair in less than two years. Rick Wagoner stepped down from the position at the request of the United States government and was replaced by Fritz Henderson, who then resigned in December of 2009. Ed Whitacre took the reigns in early 2010, and now Akerson will replace him as both CEO and chairman of the board by year’s end.

But who is Dan Akerson? After all, most of us had never heard his name before this big announcement, and he must be awfully qualified if he’s been offered the top-ranking position at one of the world’s largest automakers.

Akerson, 61, has been a member of GM’s board of directors since July of 2009 where he worked closely with Whitacre. In addition, he currently serves as managing director for the Carlyle Group, a United States buyout firm, and is one of the directors at American Express.

GM picked a successor for Whitacre who has had plenty of experience with business management. Akerson is the former CEO of Nextel Communications, a wireless carrier now owned by Sprint, as well as a former CEO of telecom services provider XO Communications.

He was also appointed to GM’s board of directors after the company emerged from bankruptcy reorganization last year. He may not be much of a car guy by our definition, but in terms of someone capable of running a major corporation, both Whitacre and the rest of the GM board of directors are confident that Akerson will use his years of experience to continue to reshape GM during this crucial time of restructuring. Godspeed, Dan.

[Source: General Motors, The Wall Street Journal]

Continue reading Introducing Dan Akerson, the next Chairman and CEO of General Motors

Introducing Dan Akerson, the next Chairman and CEO of General Motors originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 12 Aug 2010 13:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Continue reading “Introducing Dan Akerson, the next Chairman and CEO of General Motors”

Unlikely Ire: Dan Neil excoriates 2011 Porsche Boxster Spyder

Filed under: Convertible, Performance, Porsche, Design/Style

2011 Porsche Boxster Spyder – Click above for high-res image gallery

When we look at the 2011 Porsche Boxster Spyder rap sheet, it’s hard not go get a bit excited. It looks seriously terrific, it weighs but 2,811 pounds, and it packs 320 mid-mounted ponies. Good stuff. When we spent some time behind the wheel of the Spyder, we fell more than deeply in love with this, the purest of Boxsters. If only automotive super-journo Dan Neil agreed.

Neil’s review of the Boxster Spyder in The Wall Street Journal falls somewhere short of glowing prose – in fact, it’s about 500 miles short of glowing and a mere six inches past poor. The Pulitzer prize-winning author pans the Spyder’s top as beyond difficult (we called it “trick”). Okay, so a convertible top that was designed to save 46 pounds is probably going to shape up as less than ideal (Neil: “Find me the guy who designed the canvas top. Bring me his head on a platter”), but if Neil thinks this top is Erector Set hell, he should get his hands on a Lamborghini Murcielago Roadster.

Anything else wrong here? Well, there’s the power for starters. Neil feels the Spyder’s 320 horses are hamstrung by 273 pound-feet of torque that can only be best accessed when pushing the flat-six hard. And then there is the six-speed manual transmission, which Neil feels is inferior in every way to the PDK dual-clutch tranny (“Those purists out there still clinging to your six-speed manuals, please go home. Your black-and-white TV is on the fritz.”).

So… is the Boxster Spyder God’s gift to lightweight roasters or is it a reason to fire the engineers who designed this Porsche’s lightweight top? We know Dan – he’s a swell guy and one hell of a writer, but even though we’re decidedly short on Pulitzers, we can’t help but think that to slate the Spyder for not being a great everyday car is to miss its point altogether. Factory lightweight specials like this one are always a bit silly for street use, always ask for more concessions of their drivers, and, if they’re German, they always cost a bunch more, too. And yet… we’d still rock the top Boxster any day of the week and twice on Sundays.

Oh, and we’re just fine with the three-pedal setup, thanks – like seemingly every dual clutch gearbox, the PDK still has lousy low-speed drivability – and you can call us hopeless romantics, but when it’s not about chalking up lap times, we still love to row our own gears.

Head over to the WSJ to read Neil’s scathing review for yourself.

Gallery: First Drive: 2011 Porsche Boxster Spyder

[Source: The Wall Street Journal – sub. req.]

Unlikely Ire: Dan Neil excoriates 2011 Porsche Boxster Spyder originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 26 Jul 2010 19:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Continue reading “Unlikely Ire: Dan Neil excoriates 2011 Porsche Boxster Spyder”