make enough profit to cover its dividend payments for eight business quarters. IBM president Jack Kuehler was shifted to the post of vice-chairman, while finance director Frank Metz was also ousted. Paul Rizzo, a rival with Akers for the CEO position back in 1985 who had retired in 1987 was restored to the post of vice-chairman and appointed finance director. Akers remained as chief executive for three months while a committee of directors chose a successor, long speculated to be an outsider. Akers retired as chairman and CEO of IBM on April 1, 1993. He was succeeded in both positions by Gerstner, the first CEO in IBM's history to attain the position from outside the company. The management coup was mounted by longtime IBM director Jim Burke, who organized secret meetings between Rizzo and outsider Louis V. Gerstner, Jr. to examine the company's problems. It was also speculated that several entities were dissatisfied with losing their power on the board of directors and the declining stock price, including the banks which were once IBM's largest shareholders, as well as Aker's predecessors as CEO, John Opel and Frank Cary. The company's difficulties weren't caused by Akers alone, as some suggested that he was merely doing what he had been "programmed" to do by an outdated "IBM system", while a complacent board of directors was also blamed. Other business roles Akers was on the board of directors of Lehman Brothers when it filed for bankruptcy. Personal Akers died of a stroke at age 79 in Boston, Massachusetts on August 22, 2014.<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/24/business/john-f-akers-79-dies-led-ibm-as-pcs-ascended.html New York Times' John F. Akers led IBM as PCs ascended]'</ref> References Notes Bibliography Gerstner, Jr., Louis V. (2002). Who Says Elephants Can't Dance?'' HarperCollins. . AKERS, John Fellows International Who's Who. accessed September 3, 2006. External links IBM biography of Akers 1934 births 2014 deaths IBM employees American technology chief executives Lehman Brothers people Yale University alumni American chief executives of Fortune 500 companies 20th-century American businesspeople