With the appointment of former Hewlett-Packard CEO Meg Whitman this week, the General Motors Board of Directors now consists of seven women and six men – a change that GM CEO Mary Barra says will provide a “competitive advantage for GM as we work to deliver a better, safer and more sustainable world.”
Meg Whitman
Whitman, 64, was appointed to the GM Board of Directors this week along with current NBA deputy commissioner Mark Tatum. GM is now the only automaker where women comprise a majority of the board.
“Mark and Meg will bring unique experiences to the Board, especially in technology, brand building and customer experience that will help us drive value for shareholders and other GM stakeholders now and into the future,” Barra said Thursday.
GM CEO Mary Barra
Whitman was a former Republican gubernatorial candidate in California and most recently served as the CEO of the now-defunct Quibi Holdings Inc., a short-form streaming video service started by Jeffrey Katzenberg. Quibi raised $1.75 billion in capital from investors before its official launch in April 2020, but shut down eight months later after attracting just 72,000 paying subscribers. The rights to the Quibi’s content library were sold to Roku for less than $100 million in January of this year.
She also served as the president and CEO of eBay from 1998 to 2008, the CEO of Hewlett-Packard Co. from 2011-2015 and the CEO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from 2015 to 2018.
As of March 2021, the following individuals serve on the GM board of directors:
- Mary T. Barra – Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
- Wesley G. Bush – Retired Chairman, Northrop Grumman Corporation
- Linda R. Gooden – Retired Executive Vice President, Information Systems & Global Solutions, Lockheed Martin Corporation
- Joseph Jimenez – Retired CEO, Novartis AG
- Jane L. Mendillo – Retired President and CEO, Harvard Management Company
- Judith A. Miscik – CEO and Vice Chairman, Kissinger Associates, Inc.
- Patricia F. Russo – Chairman, Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company
- Thomas M. Schoewe – Retired Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
- Theodore M. Solso – Independent Lead Director, General Motors Company, and Retired Chairman and CEO, Cummins Inc.
- Carol M. Stephenson – Retired Dean, Ivey Business School, The University of Western Ontario
- Devin N. Wenig – Retired President and CEO, eBay, Inc.
- Meg Whitman – Technology Leader and Former CEO, Hewlett Packard Enterprise
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Comments
Perfectly fits the narrative for lowercase GM, the USA, and the West at large.
You mean what China is trying to do to the west. It doesn’t get much more macho then western civilization, but after 80 years of communist pawns trying to test us down, first with Russia, now with China, they are making progress
I respectfully disagree with you about macho western civilization in terms of today. The West used to be macho, I will not argue that. Somewhere last century the west became cotton soft. Then here we are today the USA is completely feminized. I know the reasons why but people want to hide under a pillow and think this happened over night.
The commies have been making progress for the past few decades. They have planted the seeds a long time ago and like a perfectly controlled demolition project the realm is falling apart within as planned. Lessons learned will be the same as the Romans towards their end.
So we will continue to see headlines like this as if it is so important to place females in every position a male occupied since it is so important all of a sudden.
Society is going to be in for a very rude awakening especially my generation.
I’m old enough to recall the America that could do anything it set its mind to doing. Everything from vaccines to the transistor to the finest telephone network in the world. It was “America, yes!”. Now, it is “America: we apologise.”
I really don’t care if it is women or men on the board of director; my concern is competency. If the majority is women for virtue signaling, they are doing it the wrong way. If they are competent, and, oh, by the way, are competent, that’s a different story. That General Motors has to make a big deal out of it tells me it is virtue signaling.
From vaccines we went to male vagines, from transistors, we went to transgenders.
Everything good the liberals destroyed.
The Old America as we knew it is Gone With The Wind.
What nonsense! Stop drinking that right wing Kool Aid!
Yeah, life with the permanent change must be confusing for people who have decided to stay behind, and try to stop life. All life. Just stop time. Destroy the universe.
Must be hard, to bang your head 1000 times per day on the wall.
This is the kind of stuff that led to GM’s first bankruptcy. It started in the 70’s, switched to high gear in the 80’s and 90’s w affirmative action, and culminated with bankruptcy. Hire the most qualified, not due to sex, or skin tone.
Great. Just what “gm” needs. Isn’t this “sexxxxist”? Will MEN get maternity leave when their WIVES go back to work?
They should rename “gm” and call it The View.
yesterday you were excited about whitman. what changed?
If Meg won’t talk Mary off her EV high horse, she’s a fake conservative like Megan McCain and her traitor, LOSER, coward father.
Great. Just what we need.
Mary Barra talks a lot about diversity and supposedly is committed to making gm more “inclusive” yet she has an all-white Board of Directors. I just looked over the cast of characters and there are no people of color which is simply shameful. Inclusion should start at the top with the people she interacts with; not at the bottom rungs far from her world. These two slots should’ve been filled by African Americans.
How about we stop caring about skin color and hire people based on their abilities, skills, education and character. Filling those two slots with blacks just because they would have been black would have been discrimination to those who were passed over.
You don’t end discrimination by doing more of it, but the woke crowd does not seem to understand that, or more likely does not care.
I agree, why not Ed Welburn?…
The board normally composed of financial and folks with Wall Street connections. Not typically product folks. That may be good or bad depending on your perspective. Remember as one of GMs former CEOs so famously stated. “GM is NOT in the business of making cars, GM is in the business of making money.”
They better go back to making cars then because they are bleeding taxpayer money.
Mike, that is the kind of code talk that racists have used for years.
They better go back to making cars then because they are bleeding taxpayer money.
I heard mixed reviews on Whitman’s performance at HP.
Ask any of the thousands of former EDS folks who were let go under her tenure.
“competitive advantage for GM as we work to deliver a better, safer and more sustainable world.”
The unabated inferred PC sexism in Barra’s remarks would have gotten her fired if she were a man and she were promoting another white man. And an NBA guy? The most racist and anti-American sports association in existence , save for that creepy American women’s soccer league. And way too much and too many H-P presence and cast-off losers. You know, those people that make the PC’s and printers that fail right on cue the week or so after the warranty is up. I fully understand shareholder ROI and that the job of corporations is to make money. But where is a car guy or two on the BOD? Or someone who has actually engineered and built the product? They’re all money grubbers and PR suckups who blow whichever way the PC stink is wafting. Makes me want to start to buy Asian and European vehicles.
“And an NBA guy? The most racist and anti-American sports association in existence , save for that creepy American women’s soccer league”
Think the NHL has that covered with its “Love” for Black players from its fans…
Carly Fiorina is more responsible for HP near extinction then Whitmen though I hope she did pick up those bad habits, hate to say if the fellas 20 years ago had the right stuff GM probably wouldn’t be as “diverse” as it is now, let’s see if this is a good choice. .
No better way to trigger at the GM haters/misogynists. This would never have happened without a female CEO first, which says a lot about the double scrutiny they face when they are successful, as Barra has been during her tenure at GM.
GM outsells Ford and FCA, and is more profitable than either.
Lol, have you seen NHL and its “inclusive ” fanbase towards Black players?….
For the appointment I’d hope she is good at the business point of things, hopefully she didn’t learn it from Carly Fiorina. More men would be good OTOH GM did go BK with mostly men in charge, let’s see how this pans out.
My congrats to GM!
Sexist against MEN much?
I entered my congrats to GM for this, which has vanished.
But I see a lot of male inferiority complex in the remaining comments. Poor guys!
Wow, no wonder GM is swirling into the toilet, look at this board of directors, they know zero about automobiles, just blowhard executives from other places.
They company that doubled its market cap in a COVID-stricken world is “swirling into the toilet.”
I’m sure glad you’re not handling my retirement fund!