Looks like General Motors is going through some ch-ch-ch-changes… No sooner than they ditch the US Treasury and the “Government Motors” shackles, they wasted no time in dumping Holden, reshuffling the top end of management and naming Mary Barra as the first female CEO of a global automaker.  Autoline brings us the story of her breaking through one of the thickest glass ceilings in the auto industry.

Barra, a 51 year old mother of of two, is a “car girl” and a GM lifer with 33 years experience under her belt. She was groomed by outgoing CEO Dan Akerson who accelerated his retirement due to his wife’s advanced cancer.

She earned her BS in Electrical Engineering and joined GM as an intern in 1980. She went to complete her MBA at Stanford in 1990 and has run factories, global HR and product development in her tenure since then. She also admits to loving “Cars that go fast” and owning every generation of Camaro. Now that’s our kinda CEO!

GM has been likened to an ocean going super tanker. You give input to the tiller and 4 miles later it starts to turn. Commensurately, GM’s current line up, (arguably the best in its history,) was in gestation years ago by former CEO Rick Waggoner, “Maximum” Bob Lutz and Mark Ruess. The “Carpocalypse” of 2008 cost Waggoner his gig and Lutz departed shortly thereafter, but the heavy lifting was done and the product that we see today, although influenced a bit by Barra, are still a direct result of the hoary “old” GM.

Mark Ruess, President of GM North America since 2009, survived the Great Recession and GM’s bankruptcy and furthered the efforts of long gone co-horts. If you like the SS, C7, Z/28, ZL1, ATS, CTS et al, Ruess was the guy that championed them through the GM labyrinth. Rumor on the street is that outgoing CEO Akerson didn’t much like Ruess and although he was in the running for the top spot, he was passed over in favor of protege Barra because he was seen as part of ” insular “old GM. That Barra is a 33 year GM insider didn’t seem to matter. Ironically he was promoted to Barra’s old gig leading GM’s Global Product Development. 

Corporate skulduggery aside, Barra is by all accounts whip smart and is highly regarded by the General Motors board and auto industry watchers. She will be a formidable force for America’s largest automaker and although we’ll have to wait a bit to see what her leadership brings, this is an exiting new chapter for GM and will be interesting to watch.