General Motors announced on Thursday that CEO Ed Whitacre will resign effective Sept. 1.

His replacement will be GM board member Dan Akerson, the managing director of The Carlyle Group, a private equity firm.

Dan Akerson, managing director and head of global buyout of The Carlyle Group, will become General Motors CEO on Sept. 1.Dan Akerson, managing director and head of global buyout of The Carlyle Group, will become General Motors CEO on Sept. 1. (The Carlyle Group/Associated Press)

Whitacre will remain as chairman of the board until the end of the year. He has said he had no plans to be a long-term CEO.

Akerson's appointment might trigger a debate over the fact that he does not have experience leading a manufacturing company.

Akerson, 61, will be GM's fourth CEO in 18 months.

Whitacre was named chair last July when GM emerged from bankruptcy protection. After he ousted CEO Fritz Henderson, Whitacre was named interim CEO in December and became permanent CEO in January.

Akerson comes from the telecommunications industry. He worked in top executive positions at MCI Communications in the 1980s and 1990s, and was chairman and CEO of XO Communications Inc., where he oversaw a major restructuring.

He was also chairman and CEO of Nextel Communications Inc., where he shifted the company from a regional walkie-talkie maker to a digital wireless provider.

The announcement came the same day the company announced it made $1.33 billion US in the second quarter, a sign of growing strength as the company prepares to sell stock to the public.

Makes 2nd quarterly profit

It was GM's second straight quarterly profit. The company made $865 million in the first quarter of 2010.

Whitacre said GM is eager to sell the stock so it can pay off $43.3 billion in government loans that were converted into a large stake in the company. No date has been set for the sale.

GM has been majority-owned by the government since it left bankruptcy protection in July of 2009.

Second-quarter revenue was $33.17 billion, up 5.3 per cent from the first quarter on strong sales in China and on U.S. sales of revamped cars and trucks.

GM didn't report second-quarter results last year because it spent part of the quarter in bankruptcy protection.

With files from The Associated Press