In honor of Women’s History month, we at Advantage Automotive Analytics would like offer a tribute to some of the outstanding talent and success of women in the automotive industry.
Mary Barra, a Michigan native is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of General Motors. She was elected Chairman of the GM Board of Directors on Jan. 4, 2016 and has served as CEO of GM since Jan. 15, 2014. She rose up through the ranks at GM after being a General Motors Institute (Kettering University) co-op student with the Pontiac Motor Division in 1980. She received a degree from GMI in electrical engineering.
Prior to becoming CEO, Barra served as GM executive vice president, Global Product Development, Purchasing and Supply Chain since August 2013, and as senior vice president, Global Product Development since February 2011. In these roles, Barra and her teams were responsible for the design, engineering and quality of GM vehicle launches worldwide.
Previously, she served as vice president, Global Human Resources; vice president, Global Manufacturing Engineering; plant manager, Detroit Hamtramck Assembly; and in several other executive engineering and staff positions.
Barra has placed herself in the history books as the first female CEO of a major global automaker. She has been featured on the cover of Time’s “100 Most Influential People in the World” issue, managed the entire Detroit/Hamtramck Assembly plant, and has been listed as the seventh most powerful woman in the world by Forbes. Fortune magazine has also given this enterprising powerhouse due praise, placing her second on its list of the 50 most powerful women in business.
She is a member of the Stanford Graduate School of Business Advisory Council, a member of the Board of Trustees for the Detroit Country Day School and has raised a record $2.4 million for scholarships and community arts programs through the College for Creative Studies in 2014 by chairing the Detroit International Wine Auction alongside her husband. She also reportedly chaired the 2012 Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute’s annual dinner, which raised nearly $1.7 million for cancer research.
