Mary Barra Named to Top 5 of Forbes’ Most Powerful Women List

This annual list prepared by Forbes magazine, called The World's 100 Most Powerful Women, has placed a CEO from the automotive sphere squarely near the top of their rankings – right behind VP Kamala Harris but well ahead of newsmakers like Oprah Winfrey.

The publication says the people on their list are “female leaders who use their political and economic power to transform industries and solve society's problems”. Barra was selected for the #4 position on this list thanks to using her clout at the helm of one of the world’s biggest automakers as a driver for introducing electric vehicles to the masses, with a target of selling more EVs than Tesla in our market by the 2025 calendar year.

GM has certainly been stuffing its lineup with electric vehicles which are already on sale or just over the horizon. Plowing untold square acres of money and development into the Ultium platform allows them to introduce EVs across a wide range of price points, a critical detail if the company hopes to achieve its goals. Rigs like the upcoming Equinox EV, which is targeted to start around 30 large, are going to be central to that mission since it is only a sliver of the population that can afford to slap down six figures for a Hummer EV pickup.

Barra has been at the helm of General Motors since 2014, no small shakes given the industry’s propensity to turf CEOs at the first sign of trouble, seeing the company through a global pandemic and some of the worst supply chain headaches since the invention of the assembly line. Talking heads are speculating that situations will improve as the calendar flips into 2023 – but if the last couple of years has taught us anything at all, it’s that instability can crop up when it is least expected.

[Image: GM]

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