Mary Barra (General Motors, Investments)
Introduction
Mary Teresa Barra After that, Barra served as executive vice president of Global Product Development, Purchasing and Supply Chain at General Motors. She was also a member of the Board of Directors of Disney,[5] a member of the Board of Directors of General Dynamics, and the Board of Trustees of Stanford University.[6] In 2014, she appeared on the cover of Time magazine's "100 Most Influential People in the World."[7] In 2015, she appeared first on Fortune's "Fortune (magazine)" list of the most powerful women.[8] In 2018, she received the Legend in Leadership Award for leadership. from the Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute.[9].
Biography
Barra was born in Royal Oak, Michigan. Barra's parents are of Finnish descent.[10][11] Barra's ancestors are from the village of Kankaanpää, in the Satakunta region, of the former municipality of Köyliö.[12] His grandfather, Viktor Mäkelä, moved to the United States and married Maria Luoma, a Finnish immigrant from Teuva. They lived in the small mining town of Mountain Iron, Minnesota. They had three children, including a son named Reino, colloquially Ray.[13] Her father, Ray, married a second-generation Finnish American named Eva Pyykkönen, and Mary was born in 1961. Ray worked for 39 years at the Pontiac automobile factory in Detroit when the family lived in Waterford, Michigan, where Barra attended schools there. He graduated from Waterford Mott High School.
Barra graduated from General Motors Institute (now Kettering University "Kettering (Ohio)"), where he earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering. He then attended the Stanford Graduate School of Business on a GM scholarship, receiving his master's degree in Business Administration in 1990.[14].
Career
General Motors
In 1980 Barra began working for General Motors at age 18, as a co-op student, checking bumper panels and inspecting different parts to pay for his college tuition. He subsequently held various engineering and administrative positions, including management of the Detroit/Hamtramck Assembly Plant.[15][16][14].
In February 2008, he became Vice President of Global Manufacturing Engineering. In July 2009, she was promoted to the position of vice president of Global Human Resources, a position she held until February 2011, when she was named executive vice president of Global Product Development.[14][17] In this last position she also had responsibility for design; and worked to reduce the number of automobile platforms "Platform (automobile)") at GM.[2] In August 2013, his responsibility as vice president was expanded to include the global purchasing and supply chain.[18].