'Chennai girl' Dhivya Suryadevara is 1st woman CFO of General Motors, 10 things to know
'Chennai girl' Dhivya Suryadevara is 1st woman CFO of General Motors, 10 things to know

'Chennai girl' Dhivya Suryadevara is 1st woman CFO of General Motors, 10 things to know

She will take office on September 1 and will succeed Chuck Stevens, the GM's present CFO.

Dhivya Suryadevara, an Indian-American woman hailing from Chennai, has been appointed the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of General Motors – the largest automaker in the USA. She is the first woman to assume this prestigious post in the company.

Here are 10 things to know:

  • Chennai-born Dhivya, will report to Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Mary Barra, 56. This is a first as no other major global automaker has a female CEO and CFO serving concurrently.

  • She will take office on September 1 and will succeed Chuck Stevens, the GM's present CFO.

  • She has been GM's vice president of corporate finance since July 2017. In her role, she has been responsible for corporate financial planning, investor relations and other projects.

  • Dhivya played a crucial role in the restructuring of the company’s operations over the last several years. This included divestiture of its European arm Opel and the acquisition of self-driving vehicle startup Cruise.

  • Earlier in the month, she played a key role in getting a $2.25 billion investment in GM Cruise by Japanese tech giant SoftBank Group Corp, and GM’s investment in San Francisco-based on-demand transportation company Lyft.  

  • Dhivya served as CEO and Chief Investment Officer for GM Asset Management from 2013 to 2017.

  • Dhivya earned her bachelor's and master's degrees in Commerce from the University of Madras in present-day Chennai.

  • Moving to the US at the age of 22, she pursued her MBA from Harvard University.

  • She is a chartered financial analyst and accountant.
  • Before joining the Detroit-based GM in 2005 at the age of 25, Dhivya worked at UBS and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

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