G.M/s New Line-Up

After waiting until the last day before Chairman Frederick G. Donner's retirement at 65, General Motors finally named its new men at the top. As expected, Donner's successor is 60-year-old President James M. Roche (TIME cover, May 20, 1966). As for Roche's successor, G.M. settled weeks of speculation by tapping Edward Nicholas Cole, 58, one of five executive vice presidents who had been in the running.

Showing off his team in G.M.'s Manhattan headquarters, Roche promised the "continuation of an effective, hardhitting group." And he made it clear that ebullient Engineer-Salesman Ed Cole was expected to be the hardest hitter of all.

"A Little Intrigue." A farmer's son with a small-town (Marne, Mich.) background, Cole joined the company 37 years ago, when he signed on for an engineering training program. One of G.M.'s brightest tinkerers, Cole was marked as a comer in 1952 when he was asked to fire up the then dowdy Chevrolet division. In a bare 15 weeks, he developed a lighter, snappier engine that he coyly boasted had "a little intrigue." It had enough to spur a new burst of sales, and four years later Cole was head of the division.

Cole's reputation soared still higher when he not only designed the revolutionary rear-engine Corvair, but outflanked several layers of unwilling management to sell then Chairman Harlow Curtice on the lively little car. The Corvair has since had its troubles, but Cole's baby is often credited with creating the current taste for sporty cars.

Handsome and gregarious in an industry that shies away from chrome in its brass, Cole has also been known to urge subordinates to "kick hell out of the status quo," as he himself has done with a remarkable ability to survive. It was no secret that Cole was not enthusiastic about Donner's ban on using G.M. models in racing. And in 1964, Cole bent an arrow-straight G.M. tradition when he was divorced and re married. His second wife, Dollie Ann, 37, who last year presented Cole with a son (he has two children by his previous marriage), last week got a start on promotion celebrations with a shopping spree in Manhattan.

Roles for Rivals. As president, Cole stands to earn about $600,000 a year in salary and bonuses; yet he will not have all of Roche's former responsibilities. He will concentrate primarily on the U.S. automobile business; Executive Vice President Semon E. ("Bunky") Knudsen, 55, who heads G.M.'s growing international operations and was considered Cole's chief rival, will also take charge of defense and nonauto business in the U.S. and report directly to Roche.

Also reporting directly to Roche will be another man who had been in the running for the presidency: George Russell, 62. As vice chairman--a title not used at G.M. since 1946--he will handle public relations on sensitive issues such as auto safety and take charge of the key finance committee, where the fiscal savvy he picked up as a longtime Donner aide will serve Production Men Roche and Cole.

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