- General Motors CFO Dhivya Suryadevara leaves the motorist to pursue what the company said is an opportunity outside the car business.
- Not long after the GM news, online payment company Stripe announced that Suryadevara would become its CFO.
- John Stapleton, CFO of North America, will step down interim.
- Suryadevara became CFO in 2018, along with CEO Mary Barra and the only top female leadership duo in the automotive sector.
- Visit the Business Insider website for more stories.
General Motors said on Tuesday that Dhivya Suryadevara would resign as its chief financial officer to pursue an opportunity outside the auto sector. That opportunity is with online payment company Stripe, which announced shortly afterwards that Suryadevara would join as its CFO.
“I am very excited to enter Stripe at a pivotal time for the company,” Suryadevara said in a statement issued by the payment company. “Stripe’s mission to increase the GDP of the Internet is more important now than ever. I really enjoy leading complex, large-scale businesses and I hope to use my skills to accelerate Stripe’s already steep growth.”
General Motors said John Stapleton, the CFO of North America, would step in on an interim basis on August 15, while the company seeks a permanent replacement.
“Dhivya has been a transformation leader during her term as CFO,” GM CEO Mary Barra said in a statement. “She has helped the company strengthen our balance sheet, improve our cost structure, focus on cash generation and drive the right investments for our future. We wish her every success.”
Suryadevara became CFO in 2018, joining Barra and forming the only all-female team in the C-suite of a major automaker.
“I am grateful for the opportunities I have had at GM,” she said in a GM statement. “While I look forward to a new opportunity to apply my skills in a new sector, I have great confidence in the trajectory and the future of GM.”
Suryadevara joined GM in 2004 and quickly distinguished himself as an executive to look after the automaker’s bankruptcy in 2009 and subsequent 2010 re-listing on the New York Stock Exchange. Since the beginning of 2020, it has been managing the automaker’s finances through the coronavirus pandemic and unusual pressure on GM’s business.
A General Motors veteran with increasing responsibilities at the company
Mary Barra presents at a GM battery event in 2020.
GM
Born in Chennai, India, Suryadevara studied business in college at the University of Madras and did a stint at PricewaterhouseCoopers, then came to the US to pursue Harvard Business School, earn her MBA and lay the foundation for a career in finance from top.
She worked at UBS before joining GM when she was 25. Responsibilities came quickly, and by 2013, in the wake of GM’s federal bailout, 2009, bankruptcy, and subsequent stock exchange resumption, she was GM Asset Management’s CIO, and provided $ 85 billion in pension funds.
“I love getting first principles with everything, challenging assumptions and going down to the basics,” she said in a 2019 interview with Business Insider. “If you do not have a fundamental understanding of what you are doing, it is not a good place to be.”
After taking over from GM veteran Chuck Stevens, she immediately brought a well-prepared and self-confident way to quarterly interactions with Wall Street investment banking analysts, a group she knew well from her New York-based and supervised experiences. on GM’s pension fund.
“It’s been great,” Suryadevara told Business Insider. “The role is incredibly rewarding and challenging. I’ve been happy.”
