General Motors CEO Mary Barra is one of the most influential business leaders and one of the foremost female leaders in the world. But what is more, she has completely Finnish roots, of which we can be proud. She even learned some Finnish at home when she was a child. Also, her maiden name Makela is a common Finnish name.
Barra's rise to the top echelon must have required some determination and famous Finnish sisu, a trait that means unyielding, stubborn and tenacious attitude. She was born and raised in Waterford, Michigan to second-generation Finnish parents.
Her grandfather Viktor Makela, born in 1885, came from Koylio, Finland at the age of 15 and his group ended up in the town of Mountain Iron, Minnesota where there was a Finnish mining community. Later he met there Maria Luoma, a Finnish immigrant from Teuva, and married her.
Mountain Iron has been named the taconite capital of the world. Today the Mesabi Range town has 2,800 inhabitants of whom still 27 percent have Finnish roots. Taconite is iron ore containing also magnetite, hematite and silica. The town referred as "Where the Iron Range Begins" offers today excellent biking trails and nature trips. Also, the Minntac Mine still is operated by United States Steel Corporation.
The name Makela means a place at the hill and is related to Maki, which means hill or slope. The Makelas had two children, Bertha and Reino (or Ray). He married yet another second-generation Finn Elisabet Pyykkonen and they became parents of Mary and Paul. They used old Finnish language at home so Mary learned the basics as a child. Now she is the chair and CEO of a $65 billion auto empire.
Reino Makela studied technology and worked more than 40 years at GM's Pontiac plant. The family lived in Waterford Township, a community of 70,000 residents 30 miles to the northwest of Detroit. The area is a popular summer resort with many small lakes including 123-foot-deep Cass Lake. NHL ice-hockey great Pat LaFontaine and current Detroit Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin come from the township.
Mary was born on Christmas Eve in 1961 and she is married to a consultant Anthony Barra. They have two children, Rachel and Nicholas. She attended Kettering High School, which is named after an automobile pioneer, inventor of electric ignition and former head of research for General Motors. And later fate sent her to Kettering University in Flint, as well.
When Mary was 19 she had an internship at General Motors company and following her father's footsteps she went to study electrical engineering in Flint at General Motors Institute, now Kettering University, also dubbed the "Harvard of automobile industry" and she graduated in 1985 and got a job with GM as superintendent of maintenance and tooling. Three years later she was promoted to executive vice president for global product development responsible for design, engineering and supply chain logistics.
After this Barra went to Stanford and received a Master of Business Administration degree. Then her climb at General Motors continued including such titles as vice president of global human resources and executive VP of global product development. When in 2014 CEO Daniel Akerson stepped down Barra was named his successor.
Two years later she also became company chair and ever since she has been responsible for leading the Board of Directors, establishing GM's strategic plans and overseeing vehicle sales in 126 countries. Barra was in the national focus when GM had a huge recall of vehicles for which she had to go to a Congressional hearing. Also, some plant closures took a toll on GM's image, but Barra has rebounded with new product safety measures and transition to eventual electric vehicle production.
In 2024 Forbes Magazine ranked Barra the fifth most influential female in the world while Fortune listed her as the most powerful female business leader. Even though the third-generation Finnish businesswoman is busy with her daily routines, she is still loyal to her old habit. She replies to every handwritten letter addressed to the company board, whether the letters come from executives or are written by ordinary citizens. After all, good PR always pays since the word of mouth is always the best advertiser.
Before Mary Barra became the big company CEO, she was preceded by Marissa Mayer who became the CEO of Yahoo in 2012 for five years before it was sold to Verizon. What is more, Mayer also has strong Finnish roots from her mother's side which she has often lauded.
Mayer was born in Wausau, Wisconsin, where parents of her mother, art teacher Maria Elisabet had moved. Marissa Mayer's grandparents' last name might have been Kortesoja or Oja, but my search did not give a certain answer. Perhaps someone knows better.
In any case Mayer has visited Finland many times and she says that the Finnish ethos of practicality combined with minimalism, but high quality has guided her work and decision making in technology. Perhaps Mary Barra uses the same attributes also.