GM to Pay New CEO Akerson $1.7M Cash a Year, Plus Stock

DETROIT - General Motors Co. will pay new CEO Dan Akerson $1.7 million in cash annually, plus $5.3 million in stock over the next three years, Bloomberg reported.

Akerson, 61, also will receive $2 million in restricted stock as part of the company's long-term incentive plan, Detroit-based GM said today in a regulatory filing.

Akerson, a former managing director of the Carlyle Group, took over as CEO from Ed Whitacre on Sept. 1 to give GM a longer-term executive. The automaker is planning an initial public offering to begin freeing itself from government ownership. Whitacre, 68, remains chairman through the end of the year.

“Top executives in the automotive industry aren't at the top of the compensation pyramid like they were 30 or 40 years ago,” David Cole, chairman of the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Michigan, said in a telephone interview. “This compensation is relatively small compared to other industries. I think it's fair.”

GM, 61 percent owned by the U.S. Treasury, has had four CEOs in the past 18 months. The company received a $50 billion taxpayer bailout following its bankruptcy in June 2009.

Whitacre, who became chairman in July 2009 and CEO in December, will get $300,000 for his four remaining months on the board, according to today's filing.

Akerson's pay package matches one GM planned for Whitacre that was detailed in a Feb. 19 regulatory filing. Akerson's pay was decided by GM's board and the special master on executive compensation for the Troubled Asset Relief Program, said Noreen Pratscher, a GM spokeswoman.

GM is seeking to raise as much as $16 billion in its IPO, a person familiar with the plans said in August. That would be the second-biggest offering in U.S. history, behind Visa Inc.'s $19.7 billion share sale in March 2008.