It's yet another proud moment for India and it doubles in
scale as Dhivya Suryadevara has become the first woman Chief Financial Officer
of the biggest auto company, General Motors.
Known as a financial wizard,
Dhivya Suryadevara will succeed Chuck Stevens on September 1. Dhivya
Suryadevara will be following the footsteps of Mary Barra who broke the glass
ceiling when she became the first Chief Executive of the company.
Born and brought up in India, She earned bachelor’s and
master’s degrees in commerce from the University of Madras in Chennai. Then,
Dhivya Suryadevara moved to the United States for her higher studies at Harvard
at the age of 22. She earned an MBA degree from there. She landed her first job
at the investment bank UBS and joined General Motors, a year later, at an age
of 25. Then there was no looking back. She was named Automotive News Rising
Star in 2016 and a Crain’s Detroit Business 40 Under 40 winner last year.
“Dhivya’s experience and leadership in several key roles
throughout our financial operations position her well to build on the strong
business results we’ve delivered over the last several years,” Mary Barra, GM’s
chief executive officer, said in a statement.
Just 39-years old, Dhivya Suryadevara played a role in
securing a $2.25 billion investment in GM Cruise by Japanese tech giant
SoftBank Group Corp earlier this month. She has played an integral role in some
significant deals GM has made as it has restructured operations over the past
several years, including the divestiture of the company’s European arm Opel and
the acquisition of self-driving vehicle startup Cruise, Reuters reported.
With Suryadevara replacing Stevens, the Detroit-based
automaker’s ranks will get closer to mirroring the share of women in senior
jobs among S&P 500 companies, which is 27 percent, according to Catalyst, a
nonprofit that tracks women in leaderships positions, Bloomberg reported.
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