American auto giant General Motors has named Dhivya Suryadevara as its next Chief Financial Officer (CFO). Suryadevara will take over from the current CFO Chuck Stevens on September 1. The Indian born Suryadevara has been serving in the Detroit-based company for 13 years now. With Suryadevara's elevation, General Motors has become the first major auto company to have two women - the other being its CEO, Mary Barra - at its helm.
After completing her college in India, Suryadevara went to Harvard, following which she joined investment bank UBS. A year after that, at the age of 25, Suryadevara, who is 39 now, joined General Motors. During her tenure at GM, Suryadevara helped take the company to great heights. The company said that she helped GM achieve rating upgrades from all three credit ratings agencies, completed $2 billion in notes issuance to fund discretionary pension contributions and increase and renew GM's $14.5 billion revolving credit facility, as mentioned in a Reuters report. Not only that, Suryadevara has been part of some of the compnay's most significant deals. More recently, she helped GM secure a $2.25 billion from Japanese giant SoftBank. She also helped General Motors acquire self-driving vehicle startup, Cruise, in investing in ride-hailing startup Lyft, as well as in the divestment of the company's European arm, Opel. In 2017, she was appointed as the Vice President of Corporate Finance in GM.
In 2016, she was named Automotive News Rising Star, while last year, she was named as a Crain's Detroit Business 40 Under 40 winner.
In a statement, CEO Mary Barra said, "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."
Suryadevara is based in New York where she lives with her husband and daughter and is often required to commute from New York to Detroit for her job.
Chuck Stevens, whom Suryadevara is replacing, will remain with the company as an adviser till he retires in March next year. Stevens has been working at General Motors for 40 years. He was appointed CFO in July 2014.