In another sign of the leveling playing field between men and women in the business world, Mary Barra was named this week as the new chief executive of General Motors Company.
She will be the first female CEO at a major, global car company. Barra will replace retiring chief executive Dan Akerson.
According to an article from Bloomberg Businessweek, Barra, 51, started her career on the General Motors factory floor as an intern 30 years ago. In her current job – senior vice president for global product development – Barra manages product development and quality of all GM cars, a position she has held for 22 months.
She has also served as vice president for global human resources, vice president global manufacturing engineering, and as plant manager at Detroit Hamtramck Assembly. She has a degree in electrical engineering and a MBA from Stanford, according to her biography on the General Motors site.
Her focus has been on creating cooperation between different departments and cutting costs where possible. “I’m focused on having the best product for the right value,” Barra said in a video interview earlier this year with Bloomberg.
In that same interview, Barra said that being a woman in a traditionally male-dominated field has not been an issue and that she has been judged by her results, not her gender.
Still, she said, “If, by being a woman, I can encourage young women who like math and science to not shy away from it and pursue technical careers, I love doing that.”
In addition to her duties at General Motors, Barra is on the board of directors for the General Dynamics and Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute and the board of trustees for Kettering University.
So what about her favorite car? Asked about the car she would most want to take home earlier this year at the New York International Auto Show, Barra said:
“I’m a diehard Camaro fan, but I have to tell you the new Corvette, I absolutely love,” Barra told Bloomberg. “For me, it’s truly a toss up now between the Camaro and Corvette.”
Barra has achieved some of her successes by using her engineering background. For example, according to Bloomberg, she worked with the engineering department on designing knee airbags that could be used on w wide range of vehicles and not have to be made different for each model.
According to Bloomberg, Akerson foreshadowed the appointment of Barra earlier this year when he said that a woman would eventually run one of the Big Three automakers in Detroit. And he seemed to have Barra – the daughter of a Pontiac die maker who started her career on the factory floor – in mind.
““The Detroit Three are all run by non-car guys,” he said in September, according to Bloomberg. “Someday, there will be a Detroit Three that’s run by a car gal.”
