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GM CEO Mary Barra to Head Blue Chip Business Roundtable Lobby

GM CEO Mary Barra to Head Blue Chip Business Roundtable Lobby

General Motors Co. Chief Executive Officer Mary Barra will take over leadership of the Business Roundtable, a Washington, D.C.-based lobbying group that represents CEOs of some of America’s biggest companies.

Barra will become the group’s first female chair, with a two-year term starting in January, the lobby said in a statement Wednesday. She succeeds Walmart Inc. CEO Doug McMillon.

GM CEO Mary Barra to Head Blue Chip Business Roundtable Lobby

The move positions Barra, who has led GM’s transition to electric vehicles, to become the face of big business on a number of fronts, ranging from traditional economic policies such as taxes to social issues like corporate diversity, climate change and voting rights

“I appreciated Doug’s leadership as the Roundtable navigated through many challenges, including our response to Covid-19 and leading toward economic recovery, as well as our work to advance racial equity and justice,” Barra said in the statement. “I look forward to continuing to help advance policies that offer greater economic growth and opportunity for all Americans.”

The group has weighed in on a number of hotly debated topics in recent months, including opposing Republican efforts to restrict voting and criticizing the Biden administration’s support for a global minimum tax on corporate income. Business Roundtable leaders attended White House meetings earlier this month to discuss vaccination mandates and in July for talks on an infrastructure bill. 

The CEO group created a stir in 2019 when it backed a call for companies to consider societal stakeholders as much as shareholders, a departure from the decades-old shareholder-first mindset. The corporate purpose statement was met with some criticism over how companies would live up to it.

©2021 Bloomberg L.P.