GM announces Mary Barra as new chairwoman

Mary Barra was announced as General Motors latest chairwoman after her relentless effort to recover GM from its worst safety crisis manage to put the company back on track. Ms. Barra assumed the new role after the board of directors unanimously voted her to replace the retiring chairman, Theodore Solso.

According to the New York Times, Barra was working as a plant manager before elected to become the first female chief executive in the auto industry. Now, she will also become the first chairwoman in the auto industry with the new election.

Solso who is retiring by default starting this year will continue to serve as the lead independent director for GM. He is happy with the latest announcement and also shared his statement with the press saying that "The board concluded it is in the best interests of the company to combine the roles of chair and C.E.O. in order to drive the most efficient execution of our plan and vision for the future."

Ms. Barra, 54 years old, come under the limelight as she steered GM through its car defective crisis and made the tough decision to recall back around 2.6 million vehicles causing a huge loss to the company. Barra also made a brave decision to keep on accepting television interview and make public apologise.

Based on the previous case, there are around 400 injuries and 124 death related to the GM's car faulty prompting the company to create a compensation fund worth around $595 million. However, According to The Wall Street Journal, GM still managed to become the largest US company by revenue run by a woman when she step in as CEO in 2014.

USA Today reported that Ms. Barra made a bold decision to reject merger proposal from Fiat Chrysler as a noteworthy action considering that GM was struggling during that time. Her success to increase GM's sale later proof that GM is still a great company and could compete with other auto manufacturers.

The endless achievement made by Ms. Barra managed to put her as a worthy successor as a new chairwoman for GM.

Although the election was unanimous, investors are criticizing the move as they prefer to have an independent director to hold the chairperson title to allow a more broad decision to be made. However, GM dismissed the idea considering the effort that was done by Ms. Barra managed to put GM back on track.

Currently, GM is being traded at 16 percent lower since Ms. Barra took the title. However, with GM's latest strategy including its plan to venture more into the self-driving car, the third largest automotive makers in the US might see its shares price to improve soon.