Ray worked for 39 years at the Pontiac car factory in Detroit, and the family lived in Waterford, Michigan.

The decade was dominated by the Vietnam War, Civil Rights Protests, Cuban Missile Crisis, antiwar protests and saw the assassinations of US President John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr.
She is a graduate of Waterford Mott High School.EducationBarra graduated from the General Motors Institute (now Kettering University), where she obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering. Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. You may have read some interesting news about Mary Barra recently.

Later that year she married, taking her husband’s surname. Lays Out Ambitions for Electric-Vehicle Lineup to Rival Tesla.

The problem was that many GM cars were at risk of having the ignition switch shift from the on position if the switch was jostled as the car traveled over bumpy surfaces or was weighed down by a heavy key ring dangling from the ignition. Barra's ancestors are from the village of Kankaanpää , in Satakunta province, from the former municipality of Köyliö. Ross Perot, American businessman and philanthropist who ran as an independent candidate for U.S. president in 1992 and 1996.

She also serves as a member of The Business Council.

As CEO, Barra has placed GM's focus as a company transitioning into the tech space by moving forward in the automated driverless car space with major acquisitions including Strobe, a startup focused on driverless technology.

Mary Teresa Makela graduated in 1985 with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the GMI Engineering and Management Institute (later Kettering University), Flint, Mich., which GM had long sponsored. Find out how to protect intellectual property in other countries. She remained in the number one spot in Fortune's Most Powerful Women of 2017 and Number 5 on Forbes World's 100 Most Powerful Women List in the same year. Magazine Winter 2019 Edition, Mary T. Barra, General Motors Co. Chairman & CEO, Elected to The Walt Disney Company Board of Directors, Here’s how GM plans to reach its big EV goals, General Motors to provide in-depth look at its all-electric vehicle plans in bid to convince Wall Street it can take on Tesla, G.M. In 2017 she pushed GM to develop the Chevy Bolt EV, beating rival Tesla in developing the first electric car priced under $40,000 with a range of 200 miles. Back then, she was still a college student at Kettering University. Mary T Barra is Chairman/CEO at General Motors Co. See Mary T Barra's compensation, career history, education, & memberships.

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In 1973 she earned a bachelor’s…. John P. Rafferty writes about Earth processes and the environment. Perot attended Texarkana Junior College for two years before entering the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland, in 1949. She's the first woman to run a global automaker. She initiated a recall of 1.6 million GM vehicles in February (additional recalls followed later in the year).

Mary Barra’s Leadership Farnaz Hedayati | January 8, 2014.
She is a member of the Stanford University board of trustees, and the Stanford Graduate School of Business advisory council. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). However, she left the forum in 2017, following Trump's response to the Charlottesville protests.In September 2018, Barra was awarded the Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute's Legend in Leadership Award. Mary Barra is the highest ranking woman in the automotive industry.

In May 2014, she delivered the commencement address for University of Michigan's Ann Arbor campus at Michigan Stadium, and received an honorary degree. Time magazine cited her on its list of the “100 Most Influential People”; the financial periodical Forbes named her number seven on its list of the “World’s 100 Most Powerful Women”; and Fortune assigned her the number one spot in the magazine’s list of the “50 Most Powerful Women in Business.”. Barra is a member of The Business Council and an At-Large Board Member of the Business Roundtable, where she also serves as the Chairman of the Education and Workforce Committee.

Have a comment about the web page you were viewing? Mary Barra's ascendance to the CEO job at General Motors—her first official day on the job was Jan. 15—is unusual for many reasons. Mary Barra education. Barra serves on the Board of Directors of the Walt Disney Company, the Stanford University Board of Trustees, and the Detroit Economic Club. In April 2014, Barra was featured on the cover of Time's "100 Most Influential People in the World." She is the newest CEO of GM and in 2005 she appeared on the list of 100 leading women in the auto industry, by Automotive News (Business Week).These facts are just a glimpse at her success.

In December 2016, Barra joined a business forum assembled by then President-Elect Donald Trump to provide strategic and policy advice on economic issues. The latter position included responsibilities for design; she has worked to reduce the number of automobile platforms in GM.

On December 10, 2013, GM named her to succeed Dan Akerson as chief executive officer, and prior to that, Barra served as the executive vice president of Global Product Development, Purchasing, and Supply Chain at General Motors.

He was the son of a cotton broker. When Barra took over as chief executive of General Motors in January 2014, she became the first female head of an automobile manufacturer. In July 2009, she advanced to the position of vice president of Global Human Resources, which she held until February 2011, when she was named executive vice president of Global Product Development. Since her humble beginnings, Ms. Barra has climbed to the top of the corporate ladder at GM. During her first year as CEO, General Motors issued 84 safety recalls involving over 30 million cars. (The faulty ignition switches had been connected to the deaths of 12 drivers since 2004.) Barra in 1999 was appointed GM’s general director of internal communications for North America, and four years later she became the manager of an auto-assembly plant in Hamtramck, Mich. She rose rapidly through the company’s corporate structure as executive director of vehicle-manufacturing engineering (2004–08), vice president of global manufacturing engineering (2008–09), vice president of global human resources (2009–11), senior vice president of global product development (2011–13), and executive vice president of global product development, purchasing and supply chain (2013–14) before being plucked from the ranks as the new CEO.

The recalls led to the creation of new policies encouraging workers to report problems they encounter in an attempt to change company culture. At this year’s conference, Prof. Adam Grant hosted the keynote discussion with Mary Barra, CEO of General Motors, about people management. Corrections? Barra’s first task as CEO was to show that the company was taking responsibility for the problem and was implementing tangible solutions, which included paying reparations to crash victims and their families. Barra and General Motors also came under suspicion of paying for awards to burnish the CEO and corporation's image during that time. Mary Barra has completed a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from Kettering University (a General Motor Institute). In 2017, Barra was the highest paid Detroit Three executive, with a total remuneration of $21.96 million. In August 2013, her vice president responsibility was extended to include Global Purchasing and Supply Chain. Barra attended Waterford schools in Michigan. That shift stalled the engine and disabled the vehicles’ airbags, depriving drivers of both vehicle control and protection in a crash. As you probably know, GM … The 1960s were an era of protests. Barra was called before the Senate to testify about the recalls and deaths attributed to the faulty ignition switch. Barra also journeyed to Washington, D.C., in April and again in July to testify before Congress and attempt to restore the faith of consumers and government officials in the GM brand as well as to apologize for her company’s previous unwillingness to address the ignition-switch issue. Omissions? The son of a coffee and tea importer, he was brought up in Brooklyn, N.Y. After earning a degree in electrical engineering from the…, Patricia Russo, American businesswoman who served as CEO of Lucent Technologies (later called Alcatel-Lucent) from 2002 to 2008. Updates? In 2018, she received an honorary Doctorate from Duke University.Barra was first in Fortune's Most Powerful Women list in 2015, up from second the year before.

She had already developed a relationship with GM, having been a co-op student with the company in 1980, and the automaker later sponsored her attendance at the Stanford Graduate School of Business (M.B.A., 1990). In Institutional Investor's yearly survey of top executives, the 2019 All-America Executive Team, Barra achieved the first place in the autos and auto parts sector. Awards and honorsBarra was listed as 35th on Forbes Most Powerful Women list, in 2013, rising in rank to second most powerful, in 2018. Barra's parents are of Finnish descent.

Mary Barra, On Jan. 15, 2014, Mary Barra, a longtime executive at General Motors (GM), was installed as the automobile company’s CEO, becoming the first woman in history to head one of the “Big Three” American automakers. We may have questions about your feedback, please provide your email address. Other boards and councilsBarra was a member of the General Dynamics board of directors.

Mary Barra is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of General Motors Company.