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All you need to know about Mary Barra: Renowned Businesswoman

Author

Sophia Dalton

Updated on January 03, 2026

Mary Barra is a businesswoman from the United States with a net worth of $90 million. General Motors’ chairperson and CEO is Mary Barry. She succeeded Daniel Akerson as the first female CEO of a “Big Three” carmaker in 2014. Barra previously worked as General Motors’ executive vice president of worldwide product development, purchasing, and supply chain.

Who is Mary Barra?

Mary Barra was born on Christmas Eve, 1961, as Mary Makela in Royal Oak, Michigan. Eva and Ray are her parents, and she is of Finnish heritage. Barra attended the General Motors Institute (now Kettering University) for her higher education, graduating in 1985 with a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering. She went on to receive her Master of Business Administration degree in 1990 after attending Stanford Graduate School of Business on a GM fellowship.

How old is Mary Barra?

She is currently 62 years old.

What is Mary Barra’s net worth?

The American businesswoman is estimated to be worth $90 Million.

What is Mary Barra’s career?

Barra began working for General Motors as a co-op student in 1980. Her job entailed inspecting hoods and fender panels. Barra went on to work in a variety of engineering and managerial jobs, including overseeing the Detroit/Hamtramck Assembly facility. Barra was designated vice president of GM’s global manufacturing engineering division in early 2008, after working for the corporation for several decades.

In 2009, she was named vice president of global human resources, and in 2011, she was named executive vice president of global product development. Barra’s responsibility was expanded in 2013 to cover the global buying and supply chain.

Barra took over as General Motors’ new CEO in early 2014. As a result, she became the first female CEO of one of the “Big Three” automakers. GM came under fire during Barra’s first year as CEO for a slew of safety recalls and deaths linked to faulty ignition switches.

Furthermore, Barra and the business were accused of paying for prizes in order to divert attention away from the problem and promote GM’s image. Following the recalls, new rules were implemented to encourage staff to report any problems. Barra has now become well-known for her efforts to steer GM toward driverless and electrified vehicles. Many acquisitions were made by the corporation, notably the autonomous technology startup Strobe.

Mary received $200 million in total pay (salary, bonuses, benefits, and stock grants) during her first decade as CEO of GM. Her base wage is $2 million, although she typically gets $20-30 million every year. For example, in 2020, she received a $23.7 million remuneration package that included a $2 million salary, $13.1 million in stock awards, $3.75 million in options, and a $3.78 million performance reward.

Her overall compensation in 2021 was $29,136,780, which comprised a $2.1 million salary, more than $7.64 million in bonus pay, approximately $3.94 million in stock options, and nearly $14.6 million in stock awards.

In 2022, her total pay was $28,979,570, which included a salary of $2,100,000, a bonus of $6,258,000, stock options of $4,875,010, and stock awards of $14,625,000, and other types of compensation amounting to $1,121,560.

Mary Barra has at least 1,127,563 shares of General Motors (GM). As of September 30, 2023, there were roughly 1.378 billion GM shares outstanding. According to these figures, Mary Barra owns approximately 0.082% of GM’s total outstanding shares.