Mary Barra is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of General Motors Company. She was elected Chairman of the GM Board of Directors on January 4, 2016, and has served as CEO of GM since January 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’s focused on strengthening GM’s core business of great cars, trucks and crossovers, while also working to lead the transformation of personal mobility through advanced technologies like connectivity, electrification, autonomous driving and car-sharing. Barra has also established a strategic direction based on putting the customer at the center of everything the company does.

Prior to becoming CEO, Barra served as Executive Vice President, Global Product Development, Purchasing & 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 in several other executive engineering and staff positions.

Barra 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 Masters in Business Administration from the Stanford Graduate School of Business (GSB) in 1990.

Barra is a member of the Stanford University Board of Trustees and the Stanford GSB Advisory Council. She also serves on the Board of Directors of the Walt Disney Company; the Detroit Economic Club; and the Board of Trustees for Detroit Country Day School.

She is a member of The Business Council and an At-Large Board Member of the Business Roundtable, where she also serves on the Social Issues Committee.

In May 2014, she delivered the commencement address for the University of Michigan's Ann Arbor campus at Michigan Stadium and received an honorary degree. In 2018, she received an honorary Doctorate from Duke University.

Barra was first in Fortune's Most Powerful Women list in 2015, up from second the year before.

She remained in the number one spot in Fortune's Most Powerful Women of 2017 and Number 5 on Forbes World's 100 Most Powerful Women List in the same year.

In April 2014, Barra was featured on the cover of Time's "100 Most Influential People in the World."

In December 2016, Barra joined a business forum assembled by then President-Elect Donald Trump to provide strategic and policy advice on economic issues. However, she left the forum in 2017, following Trump's response to the Charlottesville protests.

In September 2018, Barra was awarded the Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute's Legend in Leadership Award.

In Institutional Investor's yearly survey of top executives, the 2019 All-America Executive Team, Barra achieved the first place in the autos and auto parts sector.

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