Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Melania Trump says she supports abortion rights, Sen. Elizabeth Warren eyes Citigroup, and Fortune’s Michal Lev-Ram examines Mary Barra's second major transformation at GM. Have a restful weekend.
- EV-olution. The word “transformation” gets thrown around a lot. But few leaders have successfully led companies through one—let alone stayed at the top long enough to try and steer their organization through a second.
Mary Barra, the chief executive officer of General Motors, is in that rare club. Earlier this year, she hit the 10-year mark as CEO, unique for any public company leader but especially a woman. (The average tenure of a Fortune 500 CEO is 7.2 years for men and just 4.5 years for women.) Barra, who ranks No. 1 on this year’s Fortune Most Powerful Women list, came into the job in early 2014, just in time for one of GM’s biggest crises. A few weeks into the role, GM recalled millions of cars due to faulty ignition switches, and Barra found herself testifying in front of Congress—and navigating the automaker through a massive transformation, shifting from a culture that had enabled the crisis to spin out of control to one that encourages employees to speak up, especially on potential safety issues. Fast forward to today, and Barra is now trying to lead GM through another metamorphosis, this time switching from internal combustion engines to electric vehicles.
