Auto industry / Business & brands
Mary Barra
born 1961 · automotive executive, engineer
Metro Detroit native who rose from a GM co-op student to chair and CEO of General Motors in 2014, the first woman to lead a Big Three automaker.
- Born
Royal Oak, Michigan
age 64- Birth name
- Mary Teresa Makela
- Detroit years
- 1961–
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Mary Barra was born in Royal Oak in 1961 to parents of Finnish descent and grew up in Waterford Township, Oakland County; her father worked for decades as a die maker at Pontiac Motor. At 18 she joined General Motors as a co-op student, checking fender panels and hood inspections, and studied electrical engineering at the General Motors Institute (now Kettering University). Over three decades inside GM she held engineering and management posts, including plant manager of the Detroit/Hamtramck Assembly plant, then ran human resources and global product development. In January 2014 she became chief executive, and later chair, of the Detroit-based company. Her tenure has included the ignition-switch recall, the pivot toward electric vehicles and the conversion of Detroit/Hamtramck into the all-electric Factory ZERO. She also sits on the board of the Detroit Economic Club.
Highlights
- CEO of General Motors since January 2014, chair since 2016
- First woman to head one of Detroit's Big Three automakers
- Former plant manager of Detroit/Hamtramck Assembly
- Highest-paid Detroit Three executive in 2017
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 1
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Worked here · late 1990s
Factory ZERO (former Detroit/Hamtramck Assembly)
She managed this GM assembly plant on the Detroit–Hamtramck border; it was retooled as the electric-vehicle Factory ZERO in 2021.