Former Mankatoan Daniel Akerson, who admits to enjoying business challenges, is about to take on one that’s as lofty as it is daunting.

The 1966 Mankato High School graduate is about to become CEO of General Motors.

He officially takes over Wednesday as head of the world’s second-largest automaker — Toyota ascended to the top spot a couple of years ago — and said he takes a broad view of the task.

“This is an important, iconic company that transcends a business opportunity. Its success is in the national interest.”

Last year the bankrupt company received a $50 billion government bailout. In April GM repaid $6.7 billion of the loan and recently posted a $1.3 billion second-quarter profit, its second straight quarterly profit and its largest in six years.

All of which has Akerson guardedly optimistic.

“Two quarters of profitability do not make a trend. The company has to show it has the legs to perform over the long term,” the 61-year-old Akerson said from his office in Washington, D.C., where he heads the global division of the Carlyle Group investment firm.

The graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and London School of Economics also has successfully headed communications companies. He was CEO of Nextel and chief financial officer for MCI.

He will leave his position with the Carlyle Group, which buys distressed companies, turns them around and sells their stock at a profit to new investors. GM is preparing to launch its own stock offering in its quest to financially right itself.  

He was named last year by the U.S. government to serve on General Motors’ board of directors and his ascension to GM’s top spot is being viewed as a bold and necessary move for a company that has been on the ropes.

Akerson acknowledges he’s not a “car guy” but doesn’t view that as a debit.

“Maybe the industry was too insular and inward-looking. A different perspective is needed,” he said.

Akerson was born in California and moved with his family to Minnesota in the 1950s. They lived in Wells and in 1961 moved to Mankato, where Akerson’s father supervised Blue Earth County probation officers.

His parents moved to St. Cloud in 1972.  His aunt and godmother Marcella Bierman still resides in Mankato.

Akerson participated in numerous club activities at what was then the city’s sole public high school and was also on the cross country and baseball teams.

Classmate Brad Nordgren of Medina said it was clear in high school that Akerson was one of those “most likely to succeed” types.

Nordgren said Akerson told him recently that General Motors had given him a Chevy Volt to drive and he found himself smitten with the electric plug-in hybrid that GM has high hopes for.

“He said he hasn’t been excited about cars in a long time, but he said, ‘This is new cutting-edge that I can get excited about.’”

Akerson was deemed a “brash, blunt and demanding” leader in a recent Wall Street Journal headline, and former head of the White House auto task force and Akerson backer Steven Rattner refers to him as a “no B.S. kind of guy. His whole operating style is the antithesis of the old GM.”

When asked to comment on those characterizations, Akerson deftly sidestepped.

“I don’t ask people to do anything I wouldn’t do myself,” he said, though he also allows he’s no stranger to 80-hour work weeks.

Akerson also serves on the board of directors for American Express, whose CEO Kenneth Chenault told the New York Times that Akerson is a quick study with strong strategic skills and a “fierce competitive drive.”

A 2000 profile of Akerson in the Washington Post revealed that he once was so impatient with doctors treating his gall bladder at a German hospital that he removed the tubes from his arm, checked out and flew back to the United States.