8 Things You Didn't Know About Mary Barra, GM's First Female CEO

For many casual observers, General Motors took an unexpected turn on Tuesday when it announced that Mary Barra will become the company's first female CEO

Barra, 51, will replace Dan Akerson next month. Akerson, 65, has said that his retirement was hastened by his wife's recent cancer diagnosis. Investors seem to have largely shrugged off the news and on Tuesday afternoon, the company's stock price was flat. Perhaps that's because Barra is a blank slate to many

Female CEOs are hardly a rarity these days. In the tech industry, there's Yahoo's Marissa Mayer and IBM's Virginia Rometty and eBay's Meg Whitman and HP's Carly Fiorina before them. In the auto industry, though, Barra is a pioneer in a male-dominated profession. How did she do it? Here are some clues about Barra's personality. Read more...