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GM Appoints Woman CEO, First In Auto Industry

Colin Hale |
December 10, 2013 | 11:29 a.m. PST

Executive Producer

Mary T. Barra/via Flickr Creative Commons
Mary T. Barra/via Flickr Creative Commons
General Motors, the largest U.S. automaker, announced on Tuesday that it had appointed Mary T. Barra as CEO, making her the first woman to lead a major global auto manufacturer.

Barra, 51, will become the first and only female CEO in the global automotive industry when she replaces retiring CEO and chairman Daniel F. Akerson officially on January 15, 2014. She began her career at General Motors as an intern, working her way up to being in charge of product development and quality control. 

According to the Wall Street Journal, only four percent of CEOs on the Fortune 500 list are women. In 2010, only three percent of CEOs were women.

GM's announcement also came a day after the U.S. Treasurery sold its remaining common stock in the American automaker.  The U.S. government had invested $51 billion in GM in 2008 and 2009 as part of its bailout package for the U.S. auto industry. GM filed for bankruptcy in 2009.

The Treasury department says that after it converted much of its initial loans to stock, the U.S. recovered $39 billion of its initial loan, including $700 million in dividends. According to Quartz, the end result for the bailout was a loss of $11 billion for U.S. taxpayers.

Read more about General Motors at Quartz, the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and Bloomberg.

Reach Executive Producer Colin Hale here. Follow him on Twitter.



 

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