Hi everybody. Today I'm going to talk with Mary Barra, one of the most powerful women in the world.

Mary is the CEO of General Motors, which makes iconic cars, but also increasingly a big player in electric vehicles.

Welcome to the program, Mary.

Well, it's great to be here. Thank you so much.

One of the things that not many people know about you is that you're in a way a Finn.

Absolutely. I'm 97% Finnish, so very proud.

Tell us about the Finnish part of you.

Well, you know, my parents both spoke Finnish. In fact, my grandparents only spoke

Finnish. And so my parents learned both languages. Unfortunately, I didn't have the language

capability. So I only know a few words in Finnish. But, you know, as a child, we celebrated our

heritage with the Finnish community in the greater

Detroit area. So I learned a lot about the country. And unfortunately, I've never had the

opportunity to visit, but I will. It's on my bucket list. Great. Now, I believe your dad worked

for GM for 39 years, and you have worked worked since you were 18.

Now, have you actually chosen the car industry or were you just born into it?

That's a good question.

Well, you know, I think because of my father who worked at General Motors for 39 years,

I learned a lot about the industry and he would bring home new cars occasionally to share with us and the whole neighborhood would come down. So I think I got excited about vehicles and then because I was going

to pursue an engineering degree, it seemed natural to go into the car business. And there is

something about it because the purchase is so significant for most people. And at General Motors,

we get to be a part of that. Yeah. Was it controversial for a woman to start working with the body shops in GM at the time?

You know, it was, I wouldn't say it was controversial, but it was uncommon.

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