General Motors (GM) Chief Executive Officer Rick Wagoner was forced out, after President Barack Obama’s task force decided he was unable to craft a plan to save the automaker he ran for more than eight years. Wagoner, 56, said he agreed to an administration request to leave. Chief Operating Officer Fritz Henderson will become CEO and director Kent Kresa will succeed Wagoner as chairman. GM had been seeking as much as $16.6 billion in new U.S. loans after an initial instalment of $13.4 billion.

Wagoner became a symbol of the failing U.S. auto industry in recent months after flying to Washington via corporate jet to ask for aid. Since taking over in 2000, he presided over $82 billion in losses during the past four years and yielded GM’s title as the world’s top-selling carmaker to Toyota Motor Corp. His exit caps an unsuccessful five-month push to win U.S. aid without losing his job. Forced to work for $1 a year and to cede most of his corporate perks, he had said he wouldn’t resign unless compelled.