General Motors Names Mary Barra New CEO

Courtesy of USA Today: General Motors global product chief Mary Barra has been named the new CEO.

Already one of the world’s most powerful businesswomen, she is the first woman CEO of a major automaker and one of the few ever to head a major industrial corporation.

Barra, 51, takes over Jan. 15 from Dan Akerson, who has been CEO and chairman of the GM board since Sept. 1, 2010. Akerson, 65, said he accelerated his planned retirement by several months, after his wife recently was diagnosed with an advanced stage of cancer.

GM also announced several other executive changes along with the new CEO.

Barra has been at GM for her whole career and has been most recently executive vice president of GM’s global product development, purchasing and supply chain.

“What a tremendous culmination of Mary Barra’s career at GM. As someone who started with the company as an intern in 1980, she has truly climbed the corporate ladder through dedication and hard work,” said Karl Brauer, senior analyst at Kelley Blue Book:

Analyst Joe Spak at RBC Capital Markets said in a note to clients: “In the times we have met Ms. Barra, we came away impressed and believe she has a strong vision for GM…Her recent focus has been on streamlining GM and focusing on cost saving.”

While not exactly matching Ford Motor CEO Alan Mulally’s “One Ford,” Barra nevertheless is working to slice in half then number of basic global platforms, or architectures, that GM uses to make its cars, as well as cutting the number of engines. Spak said, “Besides improved product, wringing out inefficiencies should help GM close the (profit) margin gap with Ford.”

Akerson said in a message to employees, “I will leave with great satisfaction in what we have accomplished, great optimism over what is ahead and great pride that we are restoring General Motors as America’s standard bearer in the global auto industry.”

Akerson oversaw GM’s return to the stock exchange as a public company, with an initial public stock offering November 2010, and its recovery from its government supervised 2009 bankruptcy reorganization. He has overseen some of the car company’s most profitable quarters.

Also, GM vehicles have vaulted up the awards and reliability scales under Akerson. His training is in finance and engineering and he was a surprise pick. Akerson was derided at first for not being a “car guy.”

Tags: GM, Mary Barra

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