Indian American Dhivya Suryadevara will be the next chief finance officer of General Motors, the company said in a statement.
Dhivya, 39, is currently the vice president of corporate finance, a position she has held since July 2017, and she will succeed Chuck Stevens, the US car maker's current CFO. The Chennai-born Dhivya, who has been called a financial wizard, will report to chief executive officer (CEO) Mary Barra, 56, who has been head of the automaker since 2014.
Dhivya moved to the US at the age of 22 to pursue her MBA from Harvard University. She earned her bachelor's and master's degrees in commerce from the University of Madras. She started her career with investment bank UBS and then moved on to PricewaterCoppers. Dhivya joined the Detroit-based General Motors in 2005 at the age of 25.
Her accomplishments include being named Automotive News Rising Star in 2016 and she was the Crain’s Detroit Business 40 Under 40 winner in 2017.
According to Forbes, Dhivya was instrumental in General Motors' divestiture of Opel, acquisition of Cruise, investment in Lyft and more recently, SoftBank’s investment in General Motors Cruise.
"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.
Interestingly, just a few companies have a woman in both CEO and CFO roles.
