Edward Whitacre Jr., who turned AT&T into the world's largest telecommunications company as chief executive, will become chairman of General Motors Corp. (GMGMQ) when the company leaves bankruptcy, the auto maker said Tuesday.

Whitacre, 67, is known as a straight-talking, no-nonsense executive with a track record of cutting big deals and working closely with the U.S. government, skills could that prove critical for GM as it orchestrates a massive restructuring under close scrutiny of the U.S. Treasury.

His appointment comes amid a government-ordered overhaul of GM's board of directors.

Interim Chairman Kent Kresa, charged with recruiting new board members, said Whitacre had been under consideration since the end of March, when the Obama administration ousted Rick Wagoner as GM's chairman and chief executive officer.

"This is a guy who was very innovative, and who took a company that had a lot of advanced technology and merged it with a company that didn't have a lot," Kresa said, referring to SBC's acquisition of AT&T (T) in 2005.

At the time, SBC was pursuing the landline business but Whitacre saw growth elsewhere, such as broadband and cell phones. Kresa said Treasury was impressed by what it saw as Whitacre's forward-thinking mentality and how it may help GM as it races to undo decades-old patterns and cultures.

GM filed for bankruptcy last week as part of a government-aided restructuring that will result in sweeping job cuts, benefits reductions and factory and dealership closings while leaving the U.S. owning 60% of the company.

Whitacre was chairman and CEO of AT&T and its predecessor companies from 1990 to 2007, when he retired with a $158 million package. During his tenure, which began with Southwestern Bell, Whitacre led the company through a series of mergers and acquisitions - including the 2005 AT&T acquisition that created the nation's largest provider of local, long-distance and wireless services.

Whitacre, in a statement, said he was "honored to be able to serve GM at this critical juncture and take part in its reinvention."

Whitacre and Kresa, along with current board members Philip A. Laskawy, Kathryn V. Marinello, Erroll B. Davis Jr., E. Neville Isdell and President and Chief Executive Frederick A. Henderson, will serve as the nucleus of the "New GM" board.

As part of the changes, GM will usher out seven board members, including longtime directors George Fisher, retired CEO of Eastman Kodak Co. (EK); and John Bryan, retired CEO of Sara Lee Corp. (SLE). The company also will look to create a separate board to oversee the winding down of the "old GM." Kresa said that board is unlikely to include any current members.

In an interview Monday, Isdell, a GM board member since August, said the work load for the board has been heavier in recent months than he expected when he came aboard.

Some weeks, Isdell, currently chairman of Coca Cola Co. (KO), would spend more than two days sifting through GM documents, researching restructuring plans and financial data. His independent research came on top of three conference calls with directors per week, with some of those lasting as long as three hours.

"Broadly speaking, I've been involved in no turnaround of this magnitude," he said in an interview, noting that he has spent much of his career engineering restructuring efforts.

Isdell said that when he got to GM, he found a management team not able to fulfill its potential given 40 years of "legacy" issues that had built up and crippled the company's efforts.

"In every organization that struggles, there are good leaders just waiting for the opportunity to excel."

-By Sharon Terlep, Dow Jones Newswires; (248) 204-5532; sharon.terlep@dowjones.com; and John D. Stoll, The Wall Street Journal; john.stoll@wsj.com