OREANDA-NEWS. General Motors Chairman and CEO Dan Akerson spoke Wednesday at an employee event celebrating the company's No. 1 spot in the recently announced 2013 J.D. Power Initial Quality Study awards. Akerson also announced the promotion of Alicia Boler-Davis to senior vice president, Global Quality and Global Customer Experience. Remarks prepared for the event follow. As always, the speaker's words are definitive.

Thank you, David. (David Sargent, vice president, Vehicle Research, Global Automotive Operations Division, J.D. Power).

And thank you, Paul W. Smith and Max Scherzer, for helping us celebrate today.

Both of you exemplify “quality starts” - one of you on the “mic”... and one of you on the mound. You have to prove yourself every day, just like we do. And we're glad you're here.

I also know there are a number of people who hoped to be here but couldn't, including UAW Vice President Joe Ashton, CAW President Ken Lewenza and Mary Barra, who is traveling.

More than anything else, I'm glad to have this chance to speak directly to all of you about quality.

Whether you work in design, product development or on the factory floor, it's the decisions you make every day that either satisfy customers ... or convince them to shop somewhere else. It's that simple.

And by working together, you have achieved something that's never been done by GM in the 27-year history of the J.D. Power Initial Quality Study.