Top CEOs of all time in the Auto Industry

Automakers are some of the biggest companies in the world as they have diverse leadership ideas although their CEOs vision and drive aren’t all the same, they all seem to be in a never ending competition.

Henry Ford

One of the pioneers of automobiles is the man listed first on this list. Henry Ford began creating cars with his entrepreneurial initiative towards producing affordable cars for low income individuals who want comfort for themselves. The then initiative is now called “Fordism” which entails the manufacturing of low cost goods for individuals with high and low wages. Ford got acquainted to this production method after a visit to a local butcher shop which helped him increase sales in the industry and gave his brand Ford Motor Company more fame.

Carlos Ghosn

Carlos Ghosn has some of the coolest nicknames in the industry as he is sometimes called Mr.  Fix or Le cost killer.  The Renault-Nissan CEO is the man who brought up a financial turn around for Renault in the 90s as he birthed the idea of the Alliance we have today. Ghosn’s major effort in the automotive industry over decades has been made known by turning around less financial capable companies to a large profit making one.

Michelin & Cie in France was where he started building up his entrepreneurial strengths after he graduated from college. After serving for 18 years, he got an appointment as the COO of Michelin’s South American operation which was worth about $300m as at the time.  Ghosn proceeded with his initiative and turned the table round for Michelin’6s South America Operation by making the company more profitable than ever; this made him rise to the post of Michelin North American CEO in 1990.

Elon Musk

The Tesla Motors CEO used to be a well known expert of the technology world, mostly for PayPal and Zip2. Musk went into the auto industry in 2003 and co-founded Tesla Motors. His products were not well known until 2008 when he introduced an electric car brand, Tesla Roadster which was the first electric ride. Mr. Musk efforts are more applaudible in the production of electric cars as his company was rated the second best electric carmaker in 2016 after the Renault-Nissan Alliance.

Mary T Barra

Mary Barra began her career with General Motors at a tender age of 18 when she started as a co-op student in 1980. Due to her diligence to work, she has been positioned into several administrative and engineering posts before assuming the post of a CEO in the early months of 2014. In her first few months, over 30million General Motors vehicles were said to have been recalled for about 85 safety issues which got her summoned by the Congress to answer some questions about GM. However, Mary T Barra was able to clear out these challenges and improved the GM products with more reliable and safe rides.

Akio Toyoda

After the demise of Kiichiro Toyoda, the founder of Toyota, his grandson Akio Toyoda took over as the CEO of the company and the company became the world’s largest automaker in less than a decade. The Japanese company boasts of cars like Corolla and Camry which have both made huge sales in the auto industry. He was able to manage Toyota during the periods of the 2011 Tsunami and also the 2009 allegations which was put against them after misleading the public on the issues affecting the car. The CEO had to pay a sum of $1.2b to clear this off which was enough for Toyota to end production,  but he was able to sustain those period and keep Toyota moving.