Biography | Mary Barra — The December Morning These Towers Named Her Chief

The first woman to run a global automaker was not introduced at a motor show.

On 10 December 2013 the board named Mary Barra to succeed Daniel Akerson as chief executive, effective 15 January 2014.

Forbes, Politico, and the Associated Press all dated the announcement to that Tuesday morning.

She was 51 and already executive vice president for global product development, purchasing, and supply chain.

Akerson brought the succession forward after his wife received an advanced cancer diagnosis.

The board split the chair from the chief's job; Theodore Solso took the chair, and Barra joined the board.

MLive recorded that she then spoke at an employee town hall inside this complex, the GM Renaissance Center on the Detroit River.

The towers at 400 Renaissance Center had been GM's global headquarters since the company bought the complex in 1996.

The photograph attached was made from the river on 7 December 2014, eleven months into her tenure, while the brand marks were still on the crown.

That occupancy did not last through her whole term.

GM announced in April 2024 that it would leave for Hudson's Detroit.

Workers began moving into the new Woodward offices in January 2026.

By April 2026 the Marriott name had replaced the vehicle brands on the crown.

GM still owned the buildings, with a redevelopment plan that would demolish two riverfront office towers.

A visitor now finds a partly emptied complex and a hotel, not the working headquarters of 2013.

The portrait is a United States government photograph from August 2014.

Photo: towers, Crisco 1492, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Portrait: U.S. government, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.