Mary Barra: Chair and CEO of General Motors
Business Owner · Automotive
Mary Barra started at GM as an 18-year-old co-op student checking fender panels and became CEO in 2014, the first woman to lead a Big Three automaker.
About Mary Barra: Chair and CEO of General Motors
Mary Teresa Barra (born Mary Makela on December 24, 1961, in Royal Oak, Michigan) is an American businesswoman who has been chair and CEO of General Motors since January 15, 2014, the first female CEO of a "Big Three" automaker. GM named her in December 2013 to succeed Daniel Akerson; before that she was executive vice president of global product development, purchasing and supply chain. Barra's parents were of Finnish descent; her grandfather, Viktor Makela, emigrated to the United States and married Maria Saarinen, a Finnish immigrant, and they lived in Mountain Iron, Minnesota. She graduated from the General Motors Institute, now Kettering University, in 1985 with a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering, then attended the Stanford Graduate School of Business on a GM fellowship, earning an MBA in 1990. Barra began working for GM in 1980 as a co-op student at 18, checking fender panels and inspecting hoods to pay for her college tuition. She went on to hold a variety of engineering and administrative positions, including managing the Detroit/Hamtramck Assembly plant, became vice president of Global Manufacturing Engineering in February 2008 and vice president of Global Human Resources in July 2009. Sources: English Wikipedia (Mary Barra, accessed September 2026).
Basic Information
Chair and CEO, General Motors
Company Details
General Motors
Automotive Manufacturing
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