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GM CEO Mary Barra Elected To Disney’s Board Of Directors

General Motors CEO Mary Barra has a new gig after the disbanding of President Donald Trump’s economic and advisory forum. Barra has been elected to Disney’s Board of Directors.

Fortune reports Barra’s appointment is effective immediately and she will grow the iconic company’s board to 12 members. Currently, the board is under intense pressure to find a new CEO after current chief executive Robert Iger’s contract expires in July of 2019. As well as serving as GM’s CEO, Barra is also chairman of the board at the automaker.

Barra is expected to bring great experience to the board as she has helped GM navigate an ever-changing automotive industry. GM has invested heavily in self-driving cars and its Maven car-sharing business. Disney CEO’s hopes Barra’s experience will help the entertainment company as it attempts to work through a threat to its television and movie business. Netflix and other on-demand services continue to cut into a segment that Disney once presided over.

Former GM Authority staff writer.

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Comments

  1. She didn’t earn enough money. If she could join the Disney’s board and quit GM, it would be a good riddance!

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    1. …with her team. Under their management, Disney could shut down Euro Disney!

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      1. And then she can lead MickeyD’s, and obey Trump’s order that the burgers get fully cooked in the U.S.A. before being shipped to the Champs Elysee.

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      2. Shut down Euro Disney? To achieve what?

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  2. Elected to Disney? Er, did she get votes from Mickey, Pluto, and Snow White, but she was opposed by Goofy, Minnie, and Daffy, right?

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  3. Remember how Welburn invited Transformers director Michael Bay to choose the styling for Camaro6, then Bay chose the worst possible styling because it simply matched his vision for a movie he had already made years earlier, thus condemning Camaro6 to awful retro just when retro was dying.

    Well, now Barra is paid by Disney, we can expect all GM products to be styled by out-of-date movie directors.

    I mourn the loss of ElMiraj and, in particular, the Avista that Camaro6 SHOULD HAVE BEEN!

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  4. I just don’t get Mary Barra. She says the right things (because they’re scripted for her) but even with the turtleneck and hipster glasses she lacks the stage presence to manage a small market Costco, IMO. Could she grow into the role of GM CEO material? Well, yeah, and she has to a degree. But the adoration and respect she gets from the press just baffles me.

    She strikes me as a hard worker, with decent people skills, and as someone that hit the career equivalent of a massive Powerball jackpot.

    Before anyone reads anything into my comment, which I think is probably harsh–but not too harsh–please understand that all the MEN I’ve worked for over the course of my life have pretty much been incompetent; that I have the utmost respect for women and the **** they’ve had to deal with from and because of men; and that I’m sure there’s a lot I could learn from Mary Barra. And… that I couldn’t name a male that could do any better.

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    1. Right, you ain’t sexist, I respect that, I take your comment as not intended to be that.

      But, you are lookist. Turtleneck, glasses, stage presence, these things say that how you look = how you think, and women suffer from that prejudice far more than men.

      And the “got there by luck” stuff is pure Imposter Syndrome shaming psychology that affects women far more than men.

      You know, Kaepernick isn’t being subjected to racism, it’s just that his top-5 record of delivering the touchdowns somehow isn’t the right “fit” for any team in the league.

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      1. You’re totally right. And you’re a good guy to call me out on my comments. I knew as I was typing (especially the part about her appearance, which I mistakenly threw in there for laughs) that much of it wasn’t going to sound good either.

        Please don’t mistake my comments about her “stage presence” the wrong way though. I’ve watched many of her speeches and, while she’s improved, she still comes across as all I can describe right now as “not ready for primetime.” There’s a flip side to this of course: she’s not overconfident, like so many dipsticks in the corporate world, and even her most canned corporate speeches have an air of genuineness to them. So there’s something refreshing there. It’s just not what I would call inspiring. Or real “leadership” worthy. But you won’t get any argument from me that she wasn’t the right person at the right time for the role.

        Ultimately I would like to think I’m judging her on her accomplishments–which would take more time than I have right now to get into–but I understand why anyone would feel differently.

        Kaepernick is a sad case. (I was thinking about him this morning.) Kill dogs? Here you go, son, sign here. What’s that, murder suspect? Here’s your MVP trophy! And on and on. You do your job, but stand up, (or silently protest in this case) for the underprivileged in this country and you’re to be forever banished. And made an example of.

        Gotta run…

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    2. Sometimes, the best managers aren’t the best, most bombastic players.

      Time will tell if Ms Barra takes GM to a higher place. But, for now, she looks to be an upgrade from Waggoner, Henderson, Ed W and Ackerson.

      Wouldn’t mind seeing her hire a really good CMO, though.

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      1. Oh, and probably good that MB will be rubbing shoulders with (some) board members who are marketers –
        Facebook, Twitter, Estée Lauder, etc..
        And Disney.

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  5. The sad thing here is GM will never fire Barra, ever! No matter what state GM is in good or bad. Why? Because they would have a PR nightmare on their hands for booting the first female CEO of auto company out.

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  6. The truth is she has done many of the things that needed done decades ago that the past leaders failed to do. By the time it came to here the cuts needed to be more drastic do to past failures.

    Let’s face it she did not create the Vega like Ed Cole. She did not cheap out on the X cars. She did not make a Lemans a Bonneville. She did not call nearly every model at Olds Cutlass then killed the RWD one that was the only one anyone cared about. She did not down size all the Cadillacs to odd size fwd or put them on a Cavalier platform and other fwd platforms. She did not pass on major legacy cost with continued poor deals with the UAW to where they lost less money by keeping plants open selling w bodies at a loss. This left them unable to adjust production as needed.
    She did not create Saturn and then not give them money to do it right. She did not turn Pontiac into a company that just sold fancy Chevys and rebadged Toyota Vibes. She did not approve the Aztec. She did not underfund Opel and Holden to where development cost vs profits rendered then difficult to keep open in today’s hig cost of develolment markets I can list many more past sins.

    She did bring them back from bankruptcy in much better shape and much better funded. She continues to over see GMs recovery as the rebuild the lines as with each gen they can better afford to make them better with continued quarterly and yearly profits. She saw the most through the ignition crisis that past leaders would have never gotten GM through.
    She has kept the stock stable at a time automakers are struggling to not merge. Ford has been sitting on $11 while GM is at $35.

    She has made more profits and Paid more dividends while investing in more product than Elon Musk.

    The bottom line she has lowered cost and cut a lot of waste at GM and it will pay off well in the future.

    Many here are just beefs and just need to get over it. The cost of running an automaker today is off the chart and yo keep them viable controlling cost is key and she is about the only one what has done that at GM in the last 70 years.

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    1. Can’t believe I’m typing this but BRAVO.

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      1. Yes, very well said.

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    2. You raise some good points. So far she has a pretty clean track record and if there have been any major job-threatening blunders, I certainly can’t recall them. (There has been one sketchy association, that didn’t reflect well on GM but I won’t go there 😉 ).

      It will be years before we know whether or not shedding Opel, which is probably the biggest move to date on her watch, was wise but even mixed results come with positives, like the ability to focus on core and expanding markets, so it’s only fair to assume it’s a smart move until we learn otherwise.

      I would be careful giving her too much credit though. She steered them through the ignition fiasco, but the bankruptcy was years in the rearview mirror when she took the helm. And while the stock is stable, some natives are growing restless, as evidenced by the recent activist shareholders’ efforts to split GM up. (And she ultimately answers to those people–not us here or GM’s customers).

      This is not directed at you, but you made a good point the other day about tech stocks. I forget the minutia, but I think the gist was basically that many of them are overvalued simply because they’re viewed as trendy, or as the next big thing. THIS is why I brought up Mary’s turtleneck and hipster glasses, people. I should have also mentioned her new favorite buzzword “mobility.” Am I digging myself a deeper hole here or do some of those calling me out for being a misogynistic turd now better understand the correlation and reasoning behind my mentioning it? No? That’s fine. Just be sure and call out the sexist posts when they apply to women you don’t know or admire as well, because the place is littered with them. (Again, not calling you out in any way shape or form, Scott.)

      Back to Barra’s performance, along with lowering costs we’ve also seen GM’s US/Canadian parts contents fall to historically low records–far, far below those of Ford’s on some of their most “American” of all products, like their pickups. The way of the future? Perhaps. Pleasing to shareholders? Perhaps. Not so much me.

      We’ve also seen GM recently switch gears from funding the arts and the needy with their foundation, to “generously” funding potential recruits via STEM scholoarships, which, as a customer, has left a really bad taste in my mouth. I’ll leave politics out, but I know darn well a certain group of billionaires were more than happy to see that switch in philosophy take place.

      So has Barra done poorly? Not at all. But I’m sure even she would tell you that her job is NEVER done. In other words, we don’t know what tomorrow will bring. Ultimately I’m looking long and hard at Cadillac and will be basing my grade on her tenure as CEO based largely on whether or not it gets turned around. So far, I’ve got to tell you though that they’re getting a “needs improvement” at best.

      At the end of the day we’re all wasting our time criticizing or praising her, as she’s not going anywhere anytime soon, unless she chooses.

      Now, while the night is still young, I’m going to go get me a good buzz on at H00TERS and hit up Crystal and Charity at the t!ttie bar for a lap dance or twelve… see where that leads. Don’t tell my wife, alright?

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      1. These are tough times and major changes will occur at all mfg. we have yet to see some fail and others merge.

        As things go controlling cost is key as in the near future with the way things were. Companies like Holden and Opel would be hemerages that could force GM into a merger if th ey did not remove or change them.

        Holden had to change how buisness was done just as did zford and others. If anything GM was the last to change.

        As for Europe it would have taken large amounts of money to fix things and then the return was not going to cover the cost for many years.

        They both were like cancer growths wher one was operable and the other was going yo kill them.

        Some of you here are bent on the notion that bigger is better and making some money is enough. Both are false anymore.

        Today it is about controlling cast and being efficient which means cutting the dead wood. Also just making money is not enough you have to maximize returns.

        Automakers are not the hot stock and they are working to seen as a tech stock. But they need to merge it with better profits. That means doing more with less.

        It is a hash side of today’s buisness market but that is the reality they face. Share holders and market fund managers are looking only to the strongest fiscally or those with the potential to go big.

        Being a large lumbering company is a liability today. But being an upstart with potential even with great odds against you people will invest. This helps explain Tesla though investors have yet to see a return and could never see one but yet they invest.

        Right now there is more interest in biotech than anything and they have yet to pay but everyone is looking for the next Apple like stock.

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  7. General Misogyny it seems

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  8. Is GM so profitable and squared away that Mary can take a second job at Disney? Just asking. A board job is cushy and pays well, but does require time away from good old Motor City.

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    1. Anything that raises her profile and brings GM positive news is good for the GM.

      Being aligned with Disney, which is beloved by so many, can’t hurt. Then there’s the potential to influence ABC New’s coverage of GM.

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    2. Maybe her schedule opened up after the ‘President’s Advisory Council’ disbanded?

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  9. Cat the truth is most boards are filled buy leaders of large companies. The pay while to us may be big is really not much to them.

    It has for well over a century been a way to gain allies and hold influance in the market. It helps lead to deals with others and it helps attract others to your company that can prove to be benefitial.

    This is just good buisness.

    I have a friend here in Ohio that is on the board of banks and large companies one being in Chicago. It has helped him in his own business ventures and companies.

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    1. I know the way the business world works. It’s a good old boy (and girl) network to make some bucks and share so-called expertise – what rot. I still maintain Mary should stay home, because Disney doesn’t need her as much as GM needs to work out some big issues, Cadillac and U.S Buick come to mind. For a while GM was lean and mean, but there are signs of the return of old fat GM that dictates to customers rather than listen. Urban chic Cadillac is a perfect example, and there is all the excitement of a new model year Malibu surrounding the 2018 Vette. Many of the automakers have stepped up their game, and last year’s results mean nothing today.

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  10. So I guess she will be in charge of the “cars” movie devision.

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