General Motors

Over the last 100-plus years, General Motors, founded in 1908 by William C. Durant, has been at the forefront of the automotive revolution.

Their vision is a world with zero crashes, zero emissions and zero congestion. Their diverse team of 155,000 employees brings their collective passion for engineering, technology and design to deliver on this ambitious future. The company serves six continents, operates across 22 time zones and has a diverse workforce speaking 75 languages.

GM has 1222 facilities across the U.S., including 11 assembly plants, 25 stamping, propulsion, component and battery plants; 19 parts distribution centers; and two engineering campuses. Additionally, GM has multiple office locations, including IT centers, call centers, and GM Financial service centers.

General Motors delivered more than 6,829,000 globally in 2020. 2,547,339 of those vehicles were sold in the United States, demonstrating flexibility to manage through disruptions while executing the launch of all-new full-size SUVs and accelerating EV investments.

As a global organization, they live up to the new benchmarks and high standards they have set.
They aspire to be the world’s most inclusive company and conduct themselves with fairness and transparency toward everyone they interact with.

Designed to fit individual mobility needs, General Motors is proud of its wide array of brands.
They believe in being Inclusive, creating an environment where all voices can be heard. They are a customer-first organization putting the customer at the center of every decision.

The Leadership

Mary Barra is Chair and Chief Executive Officer of General Motors. She was elected Chair of the GM Board of Directors on Jan. 4, 2016, and has served as CEO of GM since Jan. 15, 2014.

Under Barra’s leadership, GM envisions a world with zero crashes to save lives; zero emissions so future generations can inherit a healthier planet; and zero congestion, so customers get back a precious commodity – time.

She focuses on improving the customer experience and strengthening GM’s core vehicle and services business while also working to lead the transformation of personal mobility through advanced technologies like connectivity, electrification and autonomous driving.

Before becoming CEO, Barra served as GM executive vice president, Global Product Development, Purchasing and Supply Chain since August 2013, and as senior vice president, Global Product Development since February 2011. In these roles, Barra and her teams were responsible for the design, engineering and quality of GM vehicle launches worldwide.

Previously, she served as vice president, Global Human Resources; vice president, Global Manufacturing Engineering; plant manager, Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly; and several other executive engineering and staff positions.

Barra, the first female in Detroit’s ‘Big Three’ carmakers, began her career with GM in 1980 as a General Motors Institute (Kettering University) co-op student at the Pontiac Motor Division. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering in 1985, followed by a Master of Business Administration from the Stanford Graduate School of Business in 1990.

Barra is Chair of the Business Roundtable, an association of chief executive officers of America’s leading companies. She serves on the Board of Directors of the Walt Disney Company, the Duke University Board of Trustees and the Detroit Economic Club. Additionally, she serves as the Chair and founding member of GM’s Inclusion Advisory Board.

Mary Barra has always looked for ways to improve situations and solve challenges. One cannot avoid the feeling that she was born with a crystal ball imagining the future and then raising the bar to meet the challenges borne out of the need to capitalize on opportunities.

A rare breed of loyalists, Mary Barra, has been with GM throughout her entire career. She started at the young age of 18 as a quality inspector and went on to the pivotal leadership role of CEO in 2014 and Chairman in 2016 with one clear goal of improving people’s lives and creating a better world.

In one of her posts on LinkedIn, she said, “As Chairman and CEO of General Motors, I now have a unique opportunity – and responsibility – to use my engineering mindset to help make the world a better place on a much larger scale. At General Motors, we have a vision of zero crashes, zero emissions, and zero congestion. It is our North Star that guides everything we do. I am grateful every day to lead a company with a vision that I am so passionate about.”

About people, she says, “The key to our success was our people. We listened, learned, empathized and included each other. I am so proud of our team’s agility as they rose to every challenge. We are committed to bringing that same determination to all areas of our business.”

Her Twitter profile defines her so succinctly – Working with an outstanding team to redefine the future of personal mobility. Engineer, STEM education supporter, Camaro enthusiast.