For years, Mary Barra has been a growing force within General Motors.
While she wasn't a sure bet to be named to be first woman CEO of a
major automaker, she certainly was well-positioned to make a run for it.
As senior vice president for global product development for the past two years, Barra, 51, has had her fingers on the pulse of the giant automaker's entire car and truck portfolio worldwide. The position brought her into direct contact with the cutting edge of the company — which vehicles are needed around the globe, and how different markets can share them.
BARRA: First female CEO at major automaker
COLUMN: Barra excels in male-dominated industry
5 THINGS: Priorities for Barra as GM CEO
As if the job weren't big enough, last August she was given the added responsibility of GM's entire purchasing and supply chain worldwide and became executive vice president. That put her in direct control of overseeing the thousands of suppliers and parts subsidiaries that account for everything that's needed to create a modern vehicle. It's an area where automakers are constantly tweaking in search of greater efficiencies and savings. It also can be a major headache, since mistakes made at the supplier level reflect on the automaker, not just the supplier.
FROM SEPTEMBER: GM's Akerson: Female CEO inevitable
OUTGOING CEO: Akerson brought big improvements
Meanwhile, she also sits on the supervisory board trying to turn around GM's longtime money-losing Opel unit in Europe, which faces added challenges due to the recession there.
Yet, through it all, she has stayed true to her blue-collar Michigan roots as the daughter of a GM tool-and-die maker. "She's the real deal, very down to earth," says Dave Cole, chairman of Auto Harvest, a non-profit devoted to innovation. "She was not raised in an aristocracy."
Barra's career at GM started in 1980, when she went to the Pontiac division as a "co-op student" through General Motors Institute, now Kettering University. She earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering and in 1990, earned her MBA from Stanford.
"She was identified fairly early as someone who had a lot of potential," Cole says.
Her humble background came into play when she was vice president for global human resources, where she was charged with overseeing the culture change to a new GM after the bankruptcy restructuring, and made the company a less buttoned-down place to work — literally. She booted some of the company's more onerous dress codes, and has been seen wearing dark nail polish, according to The Detroit News.
She earlier distinguished herself in a line of positions. She was vice president for global manufacturing engineering. She ran GM's sprawling Detroit Hamtramck Assembly plant. Barra was also executive director of competitive operations engineering and held other posts.
source: http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2013/12/10/mary-barra-bio-gm/3951015/
As senior vice president for global product development for the past two years, Barra, 51, has had her fingers on the pulse of the giant automaker's entire car and truck portfolio worldwide. The position brought her into direct contact with the cutting edge of the company — which vehicles are needed around the globe, and how different markets can share them.
BARRA: First female CEO at major automaker
COLUMN: Barra excels in male-dominated industry
5 THINGS: Priorities for Barra as GM CEO
As if the job weren't big enough, last August she was given the added responsibility of GM's entire purchasing and supply chain worldwide and became executive vice president. That put her in direct control of overseeing the thousands of suppliers and parts subsidiaries that account for everything that's needed to create a modern vehicle. It's an area where automakers are constantly tweaking in search of greater efficiencies and savings. It also can be a major headache, since mistakes made at the supplier level reflect on the automaker, not just the supplier.
FROM SEPTEMBER: GM's Akerson: Female CEO inevitable
OUTGOING CEO: Akerson brought big improvements
Meanwhile, she also sits on the supervisory board trying to turn around GM's longtime money-losing Opel unit in Europe, which faces added challenges due to the recession there.
Yet, through it all, she has stayed true to her blue-collar Michigan roots as the daughter of a GM tool-and-die maker. "She's the real deal, very down to earth," says Dave Cole, chairman of Auto Harvest, a non-profit devoted to innovation. "She was not raised in an aristocracy."
Barra's career at GM started in 1980, when she went to the Pontiac division as a "co-op student" through General Motors Institute, now Kettering University. She earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering and in 1990, earned her MBA from Stanford.
"She was identified fairly early as someone who had a lot of potential," Cole says.
Her humble background came into play when she was vice president for global human resources, where she was charged with overseeing the culture change to a new GM after the bankruptcy restructuring, and made the company a less buttoned-down place to work — literally. She booted some of the company's more onerous dress codes, and has been seen wearing dark nail polish, according to The Detroit News.
She earlier distinguished herself in a line of positions. She was vice president for global manufacturing engineering. She ran GM's sprawling Detroit Hamtramck Assembly plant. Barra was also executive director of competitive operations engineering and held other posts.
source: http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2013/12/10/mary-barra-bio-gm/3951015/
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