GM names new CEO, Mary Barra
GM taps a woman to lead the company, the first time a female is heading one of Detroit's Big 3. Zain Asher reports.

Muscle,power,wit, when you say cars and manufacturing,that's what may come to minds. But now make way for this woman. GM tapped Mary Barra to be the company's next CEO starting in January. She is the first female to lead one of the big three automakers and workers should be overseeing mostly men. Just 21% of the nation's autoworkers are women but for Barra the auto industry was a no-brainer.She was simply following in her father's footsteps.
Automotive is kind of in my blood. I grow up in Southeastern Michigan, my dad was a diemaker at Federal Motive for about 39 years, so you know from the days when you stepped outside, the dealerships looking to see the new vehicles, that was kind of how I was raised. So it seems really natural to go into the auto industry.
At 18, Barra took a job at GM to help pay her tuition. She worked her way up to head of global product development, overseeing major product launches for GM like the cattle-like CTS, motortrans car of the year. And even though Barra grew up at GM, she's got a different way of thinking.
She has recognized the way that GM worked in the past wasn't working, there used to be less reliance on rules, less reliance on cost-cutting, more reliance on what company is supposed to do which is building race car and trucks.
And now as CEO, Barra will join the ranks of other top women in business, Yahoo's Marrison Meyer, Megwhitman of HP and Facebook's ,the departure of her predecessor Dan marks the end of government motors. He is the last CEO appointed under the Treasury watch after the government this week sold its remaining shares of GM. The automaker is now in the driving seat of its own company and Barra is seizing the moment.
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