INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Dhivya Suryadevara moved to the US at the age of 22 to pursue her MBA from Harvard UniversityHouston: Dhivya Suryadevara, an Indian-American
woman, has been named the chief finance officer of the US' largest automaker, General Motors
Suryadevara, currently the vice president of corporate finance, will succeed Chuck Stevens, the GM's present CFO, on September 1, the
company said in a statement
Chennai-born Suryadevara, 39, has been GM's vice president of corporate finance since July 2017
She will report to Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Mary Barra, 56, who has been head of the automaker since 2014.Barra and Suryadevara are the
first women in their respective positions in the auto industry, as no other major global automaker has a female CEO, nor a CEO and CFO who
are both female.GM will join a very short list of SP 500 companies, including Hershey Co
and American Water Works Co., with women serving as CEO and CFO
Suryadevara earned her bachelor's and master's degrees in commerce from the University of Madras in the southern Indian town of Chennai.She
moved to the US at the age of 22 to pursue her MBA from Harvard University
She is a chartered financial analyst and accountant, and worked at UBS and PricewaterhouseCoopers before joining the Detroit-based GM in
2005 at the age of 25."Dhivya's experience and leadership in several key roles throughout our financial operations positions her well to
build on the strong business results we've delivered over the last several years," Barra said in a statement.Stevens, 58, has been CFO at
the largest US automaker since January 2014 and will retire in March next year as a more than 40-year veteran of the company
He will remain with the company as an adviser until his retirement, the statement said.Stevens began at the Buick division in 1978 and, like
Barra, was educated at General Motors Institute, which became Kettering University
He had a key role in GM establishing its joint venture in China with SAIC Motor Corp
and was a crucial player in GM selling its long-struggling Opel business to French automaker PSA Group.
