Biography | Mary Barra — 400 Renaissance Center, the Day the Title Changed

People treat Hudson's Detroit as the tower a GM chief now occupies. The office she actually took in 2014 was this one. On 10 December 2013 the board named her to succeed Daniel Akerson. The title started on 15 January 2014. She became the first woman to run General Motors, and the first woman to run any of the Detroit Three. The Renaissance Center stands at 400 East Jefferson Avenue on the Detroit River. Ford had built the five towers. GM bought the complex in 1996 and moved the headquarters here. For the twelve years of her chief-executive term the winter garden and the four office towers were the public face of the company. In early 2026 GM left for the Hudson's site. The Marriott sign replaced the brand names on the crown. The first crisis was already in the building: defective ignition switches, a recall that reached 2.6 million cars, and testimony before Congress that spring. The first woman in the job inherited a factory problem, not a ceremonial one.