<p>Believe me, having a female at the helm of a U.S. automaker is newsworthy: <a href=“http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/ap-source-gm-names-mary-barra-ceo-21160555[/url]”>http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/ap-source-gm-names-mary-barra-ceo-21160555</a>. I went to college with Mary, and the glass ceiling didn’t seem all that attainable back in the day. It is nice to see that even the last bastions of male dominance are giving females their due. :)</p>
<p>Very neat kelsmom that you went to college with her. I agree big news.</p>
<p>I also went to college with the CEO of The Weather Channel. You have no idea what a slacker I feel like …</p>
<p>Lol! Those GMI grads were a pretty motivated bunch. Do you remember when they became Kettering? </p>
<p>My H really wanted to go to GMI. His counselor told him he would never get it. It was too bad as he was a top student and I wish he had tried.</p>
<p>A cheer went up among the women during a special broadcast for employees today- very cool! kelsmom- my boss went to school there around the same time but was in the opposite section. </p>
<p>When I see people looking for engineering schools but who have limited means, I encourage Kettering. A sorority sister of mine had all three of her girls go there and they really didn’t end up paying much at all.</p>
<p>I think things are starting to change. It continues to be slow, but it really is happening.</p>
<p>(Or maybe it’s just that no man in his right mind wanted to be GM’s CEO in this day and age.)</p>
<p>Congratulations to Barra!</p>
<p>Two things that caught my attention from this article.
</p>
<p>[8</a> Things You Didn’t Know About Mary Barra, GM’s First Female CEO](<a href=“http://mashable.com/2013/12/10/mary-barra-gm-ceo/?utm_campaign=Feed%3A+mashable%2Fbusiness+(Mashable+»+Business+and+Marketing)&utm_cid=Mash-Prod-RSS-Feedburner-Bus-Partial&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=ColinAC]8”>http://mashable.com/2013/12/10/mary-barra-gm-ceo/?utm_campaign=Feed%3A+mashable%2Fbusiness+(Mashable+»+Business+and+Marketing)&utm_cid=Mash-Prod-RSS-Feedburner-Bus-Partial&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=ColinAC)</p>
<p>Slowly…slowly, we shall take over the world. <em>clasps hands</em> The plan is working.</p>
<p>Hearing the news made my day. Times are changing. :)</p>
<p>I certainly do remember when the school became Kettering! I was the first class to graduate after GM cut ties … my diploma is two-sided, with General Motors Institute on one side and GMI Engineering & Management Institute on the other. I later began my higher ed career at GMI, although I left before it became Kettering. For such a small school, there are so many high-powered grads! H and I never quite got on that wild ride, but some of our friends certainly did. My best friend & her exec H (both grads) just bought a 9000 sq ft retirement home. H & I want to be the gardener & housekeeper.</p>
<p>Seriously, though, I truly never imagined there would be a female CEO. It’s great!</p>
<p>My aunt and uncle are both Kettering alumni and they were posting about this today. My aunt especially was beaming- she overlapped with Barra at Kettering but was a year or two ahead of her.</p>
<p>Best wishes to her :)</p>
<p>So my dad stopped buying GM cars because they were now “made by the government” (I know, I know…). This morning I read that the government had sold the last of its GM stock. So… I thought, “maybe now Dad will consider a GM car again.”. Then read about the new CEO, and thought, “Nope, no way is he buying a car with a woman as CEO.”. Sigh… I personally think it is great, though.</p>
<p>Maybe this will stop Sheryl Sandberg from whining for a week or two.</p>
<p>Apparently Barra likes the Camero. I like it too, but if I ran GM, I would have about 50 new Corvette Stingrays in my garages.</p>
<p>
There apparently are enough people like this, that it was one reason the gov’t finished unloading their stock now rather than wait until the price goes up more.</p>
<p>It’s quite a turnaround story, I hope she can keep it going.</p>
<p>This news made me grin like a fool. You go girl! As a woman, I can’t even express how much this means to me. </p>
<p>The government always insisted that its stake in GM would be short term, and that it would do exactly what it has done. I wonder how many years it’ll be before the conspiracy theorists notice.</p>
<p>
That’s true, but GM is now also sitting on a $26 billion cash pile. There’s no reason the taxpayers should have absorbed a $10 billion loss on this.</p>
<p>Chump change in the grand scheme of things, though. I read one article that said if GM had liquidated, 1.9 million jobs would have been lost. The taxes paid by that many jobs, and the ripple effects on the economy of that many jobs vanishing, dwarf the $10 bill.</p>
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<p>Yeah, totally bogus estimate bcos there is no way GM would have been liquidated and completely shut down.</p>
<p>wrt to the new GM Chief: personally don’t care if aliens run the show. When they make a higher quality product I’ll buy it. Until then…</p>
<p>So cool! Her dad worked on the GM assembly line for nearly 40 years! Sounds like the American Dream to me!</p>
<p>I like Notrichenough’s point.</p>
<p>I am glad Uncle Sam “saved” General Motors, but I wonder would there have been a benefit to letting the company liquidate or simply re-organize without government assistance? Yes, the short-term situation would have been a tremendous economic blow for nation, but maybe we needed to endure such hardship to get to a truly better situation in the long-run. Of course, I didn’t face the prospect of losing my job so I understand why autoworkers will disagree with me.</p>
<p>Given that every dollar the government fronted GM in order to avoid such a “tremendous economic blow for the nation” (short term or otherwise) has been recouped, I fail to understand why it wasn’t a wise move. GM led the pack in new auto sales during the last quarter. Many of the jobs within related industries that would have been lost due to the domino effect would never have been replaced. If GM can once again make quality cars that can go head to head with the best being produced in the world, it’s good for American manufacturing.</p>