Chennai-born Suryadevara is GM's first woman CFO

Chennai-born Dhivya Suryadevara, 39, an Indian-American chartered financial analyst, has been named the chief finance officer of the US' largest automaker, General Motors - the first woman to get the position in the auto industry.

Currently the vice-president, corporate finance, Suryadevara will succeed Chuck Stevens on September 1, the company said in a statement.

Suryadevara will report to GM's chief executive officer Mary Barra, who has been head of the automaker since 2014 and the only woman to run an automobile company. Barra and Suryadevara are the first women in their respective positions in the auto industry, as no other major global automaker has a female CEO, nor a CEO and a CFO who are both female.

Suryadevara earned her bachelor's and master's degrees in commerce from the University of Madras. She moved to the US at the age of 22 to pursue her MBA from Harvard University.