DETROIT — Standard Motors CEO Mary Barra will smash an additional glass ceiling in July when she is inducted into the Automotive Corridor of Fame — the first feminine CEO of an automaker to generate that honor.
Barra, who has led GM considering the fact that 2014 and is overseeing its transition into the electric powered motor vehicle era, is amid 6 “mobility pioneers” who will be inducted this year.
Listed here are the other honorees.
- Fred Bauer, founder of Gentex Corp., the Zeeland, Mich., electronics provider whose beginnings trace to the firm’s electrochromic mirror in 1986. Today, Gentex has 6,000 staff members and provides a extensive vary of electronics for automobiles, such as rearview mirrors with cameras.
- Juan Manuel Fangio, the Argentinian race auto driver whom lots of regard as the best driver in heritage. He is the hall’s 1st inductee from South The us. Fangio, whose nickname was El Maestro, received titles driving for Ferrari, Alfa Romeo, Mercedes-Benz and Maserati. He died in 1995.
- Takeo Fujisawa, regarded as to be the co-founder of Honda Motor Co. He was instrumental in helping Soichiro Honda construct the enterprise from a maker of scooter engines into a world automaker. Fujisawa is credited with the final decision to expand to North The us in the late 1950s. He died in 1988.
- McKinley Thompson, a 1956 graduate of California’s Art Center School of Layout. He built heritage as one particular of the industry’s initial Black designers when he was hired by Ford Motor Co. to perform at its State-of-the-art Design and style Studio. In his 28-12 months vocation at Ford, Thompson assisted condition some of the automaker’s most iconic postwar vehicles, like the Thunderbird, Mustang and Bronco. He died in 2006.
- Larry Wood, whose perform has been loved by hundreds of thousands of children — and several grown ups — all over the planet, even with the point that he never worked for an automaker. Wood labored at toy company Mattel and is identified as Mr. Hot Wheels. He invested 50 decades designing the miniature die-cast automobiles. His layouts are credited with inspiring generations of automotive fanatics.
“This year’s course of inductees carries on to recognize the breadth of contributions to this business,” Sarah Cook, president of the Automotive Hall of Fame, reported in a statement. “This group involves trailblazing innovators and leaders who have still left an impact globally on the automotive marketplace and we could not be more delighted to acknowledge their achievements and welcome them into the Corridor of Fame.”
The induction ceremony is scheduled for July 20 in Detroit.
