General Motors Co. CEO Mary Barra has been crowned tops in a new Fortune magazine list of the Most Powerful Women.
The Detroit automaker’s top executive since early 2014, Barra, 53, was cited by Fortune for leading the carmaker “out from under the shadow of its 2014 ignition-switch recall.”
The ignition-switch recall tied to 124 deaths has cost GM billions of dollars and it faces multiple lawsuits and investigations by the Department of Justice, Securities and Exchange Commission, 50 state attorneys general and Transport Canada.
“In recent months she has beaten back headwinds from weak international markets, as sales of expensive trucks and SUVs have soared,” Fortune said. “Barra was one of the few female CEO participants in the viral #ilooklikeanengineer Twitter campaign, which promoted women in tech.”