What is Mary Barra Net Worth? [2022]

Mary Teresa Barra is the Chair and CEO, of General Motors, a leading automotive company. She has held the position since January 15, 2014, when her appointment went down in history as the first instance of a female CEO being at the helm of a ‘Big Three’ automaker.

Mary Barra’s $60 million net worth is not predominantly derived from entrepreneurship, rather from holding powerful positions in major corporations.

She was recently ranked as 35th most powerful woman in the world and the highest-paid auto CEO and in this piece, we take a look at how she wound up becoming as influential and successful as she is.

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Who is Mary Barra?

Mary Barra is one of the most powerful figures in corporate America. Not only is she the CEO of GM, she is also a member of the Disney Board, a position she has been holding for the last four years.

Mary Barra

The American businesswoman is estimated to have a net worth of $60 million and in 2020, she was the highest paid auto CEO.

She is often ranked among the most powerful women in the world and has received numerous accolades for her trailblazing career.

Incredibly, she claims more than 65,642 units of General Motors stock worth over $17.8 million.

She will be the focus of this review. In the past, we have featured people like Mark Cuban and YouTubers Ryan Kaji and Mr Beast.

Barra’s Formative Years

Mary Teresa Barra was born on December 24, 1961, in Royal Oak, Michigan. She is the daughter of Eva Makela and Ray Makela, both of whom have their roots in Finland.

She traces her ancestry to the village of Kankaanpää, in Satakunta province, from the municipality of Köyliö. Mary’s grandfather Viktor Mäkelä, moved to the United States and married Maria Luoma, a Finnish immigrant from Teuva. They lived in Mountain Iron, Minnesota.

Her father worked for 40 years at the Pontiac car factory in Detroit, and the family lived in Waterford, Michigan. So, it doesn’t come as a surprise that Mary Barra’s career has been in the auto industry.

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Family life

Mary Barra is married to Anthony E. Barra. Together they have two children; their daughter Rachel Barra and son Nicholas Barra. She met consultant Tony Barra while studying at Kettering University.

Although she has other properties, they live in Northville, a suburb in Detroit.

Educational Background

Mary Barra attended Waterford schools in Waterford, Michigan. She graduated from Waterford Mott High School.

She then attended the General Motors Institute, which was later renamed Kettering University. She took up electrical engineering at the General Motors Institute and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering.

For her postgraduate studies, she attended Stanford Graduate School of Business on a General Motors Fellowship where she obtained a Masters in Business Administration.

Years later, she would receive an honorary Doctorate from Duke University and an honorary degree from the University of Michigan’s Ann Arbor.

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Mary Barra’s Career Milestones

Formative Years

After graduating from Waterford Mott High School, Mary Barra started working for General Motors as a college co-op student in the Pontiac Motors Division. This was 1980 and she was just 18 years old.

Her role was to check fender panels and inspect hoods. This job enabled her to pay for her school tuition and put her foot in the door of the automotive industry.

After graduating, she held a variety of engineering and administrative positions at the company, including managing the Detroit/Hamtramck Assembly plant.

Vice President

In 2008, Ms Barra became the Vice President of Global Manufacturing Engineering. After that, she became the Vice President of Global Human Resources, a position she held up to February 2011, when she was named Executive Vice President of Global Product Development.

Her new position as Executive Vice President of Global Product Development included design work. While she held this position, she sought to reduce the number of automobile platforms in General Motors. During her stint as vice president, she was progressively given more responsibilities. For example, in 2013, she was put in charge of Global Purchasing and Supply Chain.

GM CEO

General Motors recognized her potential and it was not long before the company chose her to succeed Daniel Akerson as chief executive officer.

She also serves as the Chairwoman of General Motors. Her appointment was historical as she was now the first female CEO of a major automotive company.

Mary Barra GM CEO

In her first year at the helm, the company issued 84 safety recalls involving over 30 million cars. She was summoned by the Senate to testify about the recalls and the deaths attributed to the faulty cars.

The company was also being accused of paying for awards to repair the CEO and corporation’s image during that public relations crisis.

She weathered the storm and implemented new policies that encouraged workers to report any problems they encountered to change company culture.

Mary Barra also pushed for GM to start making driverless and electric cars because she sees them as the future of the automotive industry. To achieve this, she oversaw the acquisition of a driverless technology startup called Strobe. In 2017, GM sold the Chevy Bolt EV, the first electric car sold under $40,000 with a 200-mile range. In 2016, GM started a ride-sharing service called Maven but shut it down in 2020.

She was criticized for closing five North American plants and laying off 14,000 workers in 2018 in her quest to produce electric and driverless cars. Her loudest critic was President Trump who threatened to remove the company’s government subsidies in response.

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Leadership Roles

In addition to leading a major American corporation, Mary Barra is a member of several councils and boards.

She is a board member of the Detroit Economic Club and Detroit Country Day School.

Barra is a member of The Business Council, The Business Roundtable, and nine other organizations. Mary Barra serves as a member of the Disney Board, the Stanford University Board of Trustees, the Stanford Graduate School of Business Advisory Council, and the Duke University Board of Trustees Awards and honors.

In August 2017, her election to the board of Disney positioned her as the 12th person elected to this board and the fourth woman.

She used to sit on the board of General Dynamics.

Mary Barra and President Trump

In December 2016, Mary Barra joined a business forum assembled by then-President-Elect Donald Trump to provide strategic and policy advice on economic issues. However, she left the forum in 2017, following Trump’s controversial take on the Charlottesville protests.

In 2021, Mary Barra was elected chair of the Business Roundtable, an association of CEOs of America’s leading companies.

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Awards and Recognition

Barra was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in February 2018 and later that year, was awarded the Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute’s Legend in Leadership Award.

In the Institutional Investor magazine’s yearly survey of top executives Mary Barra came first place in the autos and auto parts sector.

In 2013, she was 35th on the Forbes Most Powerful Women list. By 2018, she had risen to fourth.

On Fortune’s list of Most Powerful Women she came second in 2014 and rose to first in 2015. She retained the number one spot in 2017.

She was on the cover of Time magazine in April 2014 as she featured in Time’s “100 Most Influential People in the World” list. She made the list again in 2021.

She received an honorary degree from the University of Michigan in 2014 and an honorary doctorate from Duke University in 2018.

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Conclusion

Mary Barra has become a globally influential woman of our century. One of her greatest achievements is her appointment as the first female CEO of an international automobile manufacturer.

Against all odds, Mary Barra has made an impact in leadership to become one of the most powerful individuals in the world. Mary Barra’s leadership qualities have also shone through during the crises she’s had to deal with. She has also been adaptable to change and has largely brought order to a chaotic environment. She is known for treating competitors and clients with dignity and respect.

Mary Barra’s net worth is estimated to be around $60 million. Her salary was the highest among CEOs of car manufacturing companies in 2020.

Before you leave

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David Fortune has been the editor NoBSIMReviews.com since 2019. He is an expert at writing content on stock advisory services, side hustles, reviewing online business opportunities and many more topics. You can learn more about David on our about us page.

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