GM appoints Mary Barra first female CEO

GM appoints Mary Barra first female CEO. So tell us, when’s the first Gucci Corvette coming out?

This post was last modified on December 10, 2013

CO2Insanity: Tired of the CO2 BS and all the other BS in the US and the world.

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  • To be honest, I get tired of "First female whatever" pronouncements. In general, the genitalia of the CEO of a major corporation shouldn't factor into an assay into their competence. The presumption that appointing the first whatever makes the organization not racist/sexist/whatever-ist simply doesn't fly anymore. I actually see that as being a form of whatever-ism they are telling me they don't have. (It's like a liberal telling you he isn't racist because he knows a black guy.)

    Most NAGs would be consumed by hatred at the politics of the actual pioneers of women in the workplace -- and they certainly don't show any class at all when current women whose politics differ are suffering from actual bigotry. Methinks the witches doth complain too much.

    • I agree that the first thing is getting on my nerves especially after Obama. Not sure if GM is going for a woman now in order to to seem less sexist, because not sure if that was an accusation. There has been several women CEO in the near past that seems to have turned companies around and perhaps that was a mentality? (Don't know).

      I also don't think that she was complaining about anything. She just got named and she wasn't making any case or issue. I am the one "complaining" because her gender is an issue here, when it shouldn't be. If you think that makes a witch fine...

      • No, I am talking about the kind of person who wants to be nasty to a woman who gets a promotion. You know the type -- either the feminazis who hate them because of her politics, or the b*tches who slander her because she got a promotion they didn't.

        I'd say that in general, women are harder on a newly promoted female co-worker than men are. You rarely hear men say that a woman got her promotion on her back.

        • Women are harder on . Each other in .early every situation. Men argue, fight, get over it and have a beer rather. Women will hold that Bridgeport the rest of their lives. The also take offense easier than men. Has not much helped us, but there you are.

  • Fox News indicates that the former CEO is leaving earlier than estimated because his wife has an advance case of cancer and he wants to be with her. I hope she gets to survive this.

  • OK I'll change it to Corvette. That was a big duh. Regarding sexist, it has nothing to do with that. You need to remember she's a Govmint Motors employee and probably kissed Obama butt to get the job. That fact alone makes me think she's about as qualified as Katherine Sibelius.

    She also seems to be GM's excuse girl for the Volt.

    • She has been working for GM since she was 18. She has moved up the ranks since then, she started from the lowest position and she has been Vice-President of several areas it is my understanding. She has worked for this company and in many aspects of this company for most of her life.. She has been involved with this company way before Obama and way before Bush and the stimulus. She is now 51. It is very possible she deserves the position. She is qualified at least to run an automotive company based on her tenure at the company and her experience in the field. One can assume she knows what a car is, how it runs and what it takes to sell one. Also she is a brunette, she is an older woman, I believe she has a family and she doesn't look at all like a bimbo or an idiot.

      Sibelius is a joke, she is a career government worker. She has no experience in healthcare that I know of. It is a completely different situation. Not sure that she, Barra, would have to kiss Obama's butt or anyone's butt to get this position. What do we know about her to make this assumption? Why exactly is this a big deal other than her being a female? Why assume the worst is there something else missing from the story?

      The decisions to turn GM into a Government Motors was done by MEN who pre-dated her for more than ten years (or longer). She hasn't even started her tenure she will start in January. We don't know squat about her and her plans for the company. I truly cannot assume that she is an "excuse girl" whatever that means. Can we give her a chance? Maybe she can get rid of the Government from her company, maybe she can turn it around. She has been given a company in crisis. If enough time goes by and she can turn it around good for her. She did it not because she is a woman but because she is a good manager and leader and knows what she is doing. If she is unable to, then that is just too bad and she failed because she lacks the skills to make it happen and not because she is a woman. If she keeps the Government Motors meme that is stupid of her. We just don't know yet. Do we know if she is so into Obama? Do we know if she was a big personal donor of Obama? I would like to know so I can make more of an educated assumption about her person. Do you know?

      • Gotta go with Miss Kimmy on this one, she started with the company when a woman had to work twice as hard as her male counterparts to get half the recognition.
        She managed to work her way up. Not that I have any great love for GM or it's employees, however I can respect the dedication it must have taken her to rise to this position.
        Let's see what she does with it. Although I hold no great hopes.

        • Thank you! That is all that I am saying. We know jack about her. Maybe for all we know she was against a lot of the former policies. Maybe she isn't, maybe she loves it. We just don't know. Due to that ignorance then, people assume that she will be bad and then dismiss and disparage her for being a female. That is lame. My opinion is that GM is too far gone and it should have been bankrupted a long time ago. We just have to wait and see.

        • I don't know about that. I have consulted with large defense firms. They have several women project engineers. i would say more than there should be according to the percentage of men to women. Only one really knows the engineering. The other ones kind of sort of do but are really there for women affirmative action. In the real world the ratios are about the same PEs to female/mael ratios and I know of only one female PE that does not know her stuff.

          GovMtrs is like the defense industry in that they really only have one customer now that they have to please, Uncle Sugar.

      • So she's been with the company throughout their decline, from a producer of quality vehicles, to the garbage they're putting out now. The company should have gone bankrupt, instead they cost us billions. Even people who would NEVER buy a GM product paid to keep them alive.

        • I am not debating that. I am not defending the Bush/Obama bailouts and I agree that the company should have been allowed to fail and go bankrupt and rise if they came up with good products. That is not at all what I am talking about and I thought it was clear.

          Just stating that it wasn't all her fault, the decisions came from the top and were done by men, these are all facts. I am debating her treatment and her dismissal and disparagement for being a female. The pink car and the gucci comment as an example. We don't know anything about her, to assume that she will "pinkify" the company and assume that she is a bimbo who will "guccify" the cars. Not just on this website but in others as well. My question is would this level of hate (so to speak) would be the same if it has been a man? That is my only true question. I don't recall this level of hate against the former CEO. Would there be an assumption that he would "Prada" the cars and "Bluesify" the company? Was he dismissed for being a himbo?

          • I never said it was all her fault. But promoting from within a failed company might not always be the best idea. Maybe it would be better to bring in someone from outside, that knows how to run a company. Regardless of their sex.

          • Then again, Poppa, you know that classically the workers in a company of any kind are well aware of problems and their uplines are such a$$holes, they won't listen and make the changes needed. Maybe she has LOTS of good ideas that have previously been flushed, either because she was a woman, or because the higher ups were to arrogant to listen. I'm with KImmy; lets keep an open mind and see what she has to offer. It can't be much worse than her predecessors, and just might be vastly better!

          • Let's see her head up a team of engineers tasked with designing an ignition lock that is at least somewhat functional, and give one to every poor sucker that owns an '05 Saturn. Then I'll be impressed.

          • Didn't state that you stated it was her fault. Just my assertion that it wasn't, even though she is part of the company during the times of bad decisions made by people from the top. They have hired from the outside the company several times and it didn't work. Also it seems they hired people not really part of automative industry in the past and as JP intimated that is a problem. So I suggested that perhaps hiring from within may have made things different. Maybe yes, maybe not, but they are doing it now which is different from what they were doing in the recent past. So we will have to see what she does and if is successful or not. As for her gender I've made my point on that several times and I'm over it.

  • It's not going to matter who Government Motors appoints as CEO, they are already circling the drain, and without another bailout, the unions will drag them down and finish them off.

    • I actually agree with you PH. Considering all the issues involved including the unions and the disaster with the Volt line, etc... etc... even if she is highly qualified and has the best of intentions she may not be able to turn it around and GM may just have to close out. If she is not the appropriate person it will happen sooner rather than later. We will have to wait and see.

  • If she guts the Volt production, I will be impressed. Although the market has pretty much done that even with a $10k Obama rebate for each one.

  • If one reads the article one knows that she has been in this industry for most of her life. I am sure she knows what a car is and she knows what is needed to sell cars. The question is will she be able to win over people who are disappointed in GM? Can she turn the tide? Being a woman shouldn't be a reason for her being able to do it or not as the many men that came before her didn't do it either.

    I think that it is a bit disparaging to essentially assume that as a woman she will make a mess of things or that she as a woman must be a brand shopper and come up with ridiculous stuff for the cars. Again the very many MEN that came before her made a lot of mistakes as well. She should not be discredited or disparaged because of her gender she should be given a chance like everyone else ESPECIALLY since she has been with the company for so long.

    “There’s nobody with more years of honest ‘car-guy’ credentials than she has,” Gordon told the AP. “She started off as a little-girl car guy. She became a big-girl car guy and how she’s a woman car guy. She’s the one to do the breakthrough.”
    Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2013/12/10/gm-appoints-mary-barra-first-female-ceo/#ixzz2n6tVPxjF

    "little girl car guy"? I mean seriously? That is really disgusting.

    • Okay so Hisham, PH and me are the only ones getting TD'ed here... What kind of trolls do we have here? Sexists, racists, what? Seriously that is just pathetic.

      • So far KQ, it looks like they're just wanting to TD you. I think they're being racist, female hating bigots. But what would you expect from a bunch of knuckle dragging proglodytes? So far I've only had one TD, but now that I brought that up, I expect they'll try and catch me up.

    • I was wondering who the big hair blond Barbie, leopard skin tights, bombshell in the picture was. It that the new CEO herself? BTW, isn't that her Mary Kay Corvette?

      • NO. That is NOT the CEO. You can go to FoxNews.com or elsewhere to see her picture. I am not sure that the picture above is fair and it is not funny. It doesn't represent what she looks like and without knowing more about her plans for the company, it is premature to assume that she will "pinkify" the company or do anything that is implied by the photo and the caption of the Gucci business... That whole thing above is in my opinion, very dismissive, and I am sure would have never been done if it had been a man and hopefully it would not have been done if she was a Conservative woman. I don't like it when stuff like this is done to Conservative Women like Sarah Palin, assuming the worst about her without knowing her intentions which is essentially what did happen and continues to happen to Sarah now after all this time with her being in the limelight. It is very possible this new CEO is a liberal/Democrat, but since we know nothing about her and her capabilities and what her plans are and she hasn't even started yet, I think it is premature to assume the worst. That is just my opinion.

    • Yeah the piece was sexist. She does seem qualified and coming out of the vehicle design and production side of the business makes far more sense than a finance guy at he top. Roger Smith was a finance guy and it was a disaster.

      • Yes. They should have hired from within in the past. We don't know much about her. Hopefully she will turn it around. What she needs to do is truly pay the government back and stop the Volt disaster.

        Note:

        TDer whats the problem? Get some balls... put them on and let me know.

        • Not the TDer, but my problem with hiring from within, at least for GM, is that it is the people within that drove the company bankrupt to begin with. GM design and development are the guys that were unable to come up with an ignition lock that works for more than a month or so before having problems. How difficult can that be?

          http://www.saturnspot.com/showthread.php?t=30274

          • That's fine. All I meant is that they needed to hire people that know what they are doing vis a vis a car and so on and so forth. She is getting hate mostly for being a woman, whereas her credentials (so far) has proven that she is a car industry person. Now I know what you are saying... she is from the same company that f'ed stuf up. Just saying that we need to just see what she has got to offer. She may mess up more or she may change things around. If she had worked for another car company like let's say... Toyota my question would be would she be getting the same amount of hate or hate because she is a woman still? Or would people appreciate the fact that she comes from a successful car company? I guess we will never know.

          • I'm not giving her any hate at all for being a woman. That would be like hating Obama for being black.

          • Never did I say that you personally were doing that. I wasn't talking about you. I was talking generally and a few people specifically.

            I've made my points several time already. I'm over it.

      • "She does seem qualified and coming out of the vehicle design and production side of the business makes far more sense than a finance guy at he top."

        Hear! Hear! Worst thing a car company can do is put accountants in charge. They just don't get it, whereas the car people do.

  • So tell us, when’s the first Gucci Viper coming out?

    He's in the white house, as to when he comes out (of the closet)....my guess is 2016/17.

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