Fortune Magazine is out today with its annual ranking of the 50 Most Powerful Women in American Business, and General Motors chair and Chief Executive Officer Mary Barra is second on the list.
Fortune detailed why they chose Barra, who took over as GM's CEO in 2014, writing:
"Ordered to make ventilators by President Trump, GM has cranked out 30,000 of them. Meanwhile, Barra is focusing on electric vehicles, adding thousands of new charging stations, and striking major partnerships, including a bold bet on Nikola, a Tesla rival. In September, GM announced a $2 billion stake in the company, but the deal’s closing was delayed as Nikola faces fraud and other allegations."
Topping the list is 53-year old Julie Sweet the CEO of Accenture; Third on the list is Abigail Johnson from Fidelity Investments; Fourth is Gail Boudreaux from Anthem.
Carol Tome', the CEO of UPS is fifth.
As for Barra, she's also going to be inducted Oct. 23 into the Hall of Fame of the International Women’s Forum (IWF) at its World Leadership Conference.
“Women throughout the world have noticed and are inspired by the bold and visionary leadership of Mary Barra," said forum CEO Stephanie O'Keefe. "She is not only leading transformation in the global auto industry at a time of crisis and light-speed change, she is showing the world that tapping human potential across all genders, races and cultures is great business."
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Barra is a native of Royal Oak, Mich., and started working at GM in 1980 as a co-op student when she was 18 years old. By 2009, she was vice president of global manufacturing engineering, and later was promoted to become the first female CEO at GM.
As for her personal life, she has two children and her father worked at Pontiac for more than 40 years.