Annapolis Success Story

While a graduate of a government military school Daniel Akerson has shown his successful leadership in the private sector.

We usually associate Annapolis (Maryland) with the U.S. Naval Academy. This government institution has been graduating future leaders of the U.S. Navy for over a hundred years.  Daniel Akerson who was born in California and grew up in Mankato, Minnesota graduated from this prestigious institution in 1970 with a B.S. in engineering degree. He then went on to serve as a naval destroyer officer from 1970-1975. His successful career though has not been in the U.S. military but in the private sector.

His success was initially in the telecommunications and technology industries where he was the president or CEO of several companies. Among the companies he headed include MCI, Nextel Communications, XO Communications and General Instrument.  At Nextel where he was hired as CEO in 1996, company revenue grew from $171.7 million before he arrived to over $3.3 billion in 1998.

In 2003, Akerson joined the Carlyle Group in Washington, D.C. He was a managing director and head of global buyout. His responsibilities included managing over $50 billion in assets and more than 200 portfolio companies having combined employees in the hundreds of thousands worldwide. Akerson was a key figure in Carlyle’s achieving 30 percent gross internal rates of return in the firm’s corporate private equity business.

Akerson was set up for a big challenge on July 2009 when he was elected to the board of directors of General Motors as representative of the U.S. Treasury. GM at that time was already 61 percent owned by the government which was trying to rescue the floundering auto giant. He became the CEO of GM on September 2010 and Chairman of the Board on January 2011.

With Akerson at the helm, GM launched one of the largest IPOs ever totaling $23 billion. The company has also gained market share and has been more consistent in terms of profit.  In 2011, GM was able to achieve $7.6 billion in record profits from sales of $150.3 billion.

This Annapolis graduate has time and again shown his great leadership skills in the private sector.