MEDIA TIP SHEET: WSU experts prepared to speak on impact of General Motors CEO announcement
Multiple media outlets have reported this morning that General Motors will announce Mary T. Barra, the automaker's head of product development, as its next chief executive. Barra would be the first female CEO of a major automaker.
Experts from the Wayne State University School of Business Administration are prepared to help provide context to this historic announcement:
Toni Somers, interim chair of the Department of Management and Information Systems, and her colleague Sheri Perelli, were the lead academic researchers on the recently released 2013 Michigan Women's Leadership Index. This joint report by WSU and the Inforum Center for Leadership found that 28 of Michigan's top 100 public companies have no women as directors, executive officers or in the ranks of the five highest-paid employees. Somers can speak to the historical context of this announcement and the amount of work still left to do in promoting gender equity in corporate America.
Margaret Williams, interim dean of the School of Business Administration, is an expert on leadership, work-life issues and perceptions of fairness in the workplace. Williams can speak to the impact that diverse voices can have on corporate decision making and some of the issues women face in achieving top positions in large corporations.
Contact: Steve Townsend
Phone: 313-577-0202
Email: smtownsend@wayne.edu
