Marissa West, a senior vice president at General Motors Co. and president of GM North America, knew she wanted to work for the Detroit-based automaker since about age 5.
“I was born and raised in a small town in southeast Michigan and have several generations of GM (workers) in my family,” West says. “Both of my grandfathers worked for GM, and one of my grandmothers and my dad worked for GM. So for as long as I can remember, I knew GM was really integral to my family.”
She also was just plain interested in cars.
“My dad would bring home different work-related vehicles that he was driving and, when he brought a new one home, I’d run out and crawl through the car,” she recalls. “I became intrigued when the instrument clusters became more digital, and buttons started appearing on the steering wheel. I even remember noticing the seat belts changed from having the square GM on the button to the red button. At 5 to 8 years old, I was really tuned in to some specific details.
“I also remember going to the Detroit Auto Show with my dad and collecting all the brochures, and going home and pretending that I was selling them.”
When she showed a mastery of math and science in high school, her dad pointed her toward engineering. West focused on mechanical engineering.
“I was really into vehicle performance and had chances to visit the Milford Proving Ground for various events and fell in love,” says West, who did her undergraduate work at Michigan State University. She followed up with a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Michigan.
In lieu of relying on family connections, West was recruited out of MSU to an internship working as a durability and quality assurance test engineer at GM’s Milford Proving Ground in 2003. Later that year, she hired in full time.
“It really was a good opportunity to touch all parts of the car, documenting issues and working with engineers in the various departments,” she says of her internship at Milford. “It was a good indoctrination into the auto industry.”
Her first position as a full-fledged GM engineer was in the noise and vibration department in the automaker’s performance organization, also at Milford. She spent the first seven years of her career working on noise and vibrations for different vehicle systems.
“In that job, we did a lot of driving,” she says. “Part of the job was evaluating vehicles, both on the property at Milford and during trips off-property. We drove countless miles.”
One of her career thrills was working on the second-generation Cadillac CTS more than a decade ago.
“That still sticks out as a career highlight: working on a vehicle from cradle to launch. I was able to transition what my engineering role was, but keep working on that vehicle.”
She even had a role in the launch event at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit that year. Mementos of that time include a model of the CTS and a Motor Trend Car of the Year coffee mug.
Since that time, she’s worked on engineering rear-wheel drive performance vehicles, small compact cars, full-size trucks, and medium-sized trucks and vans, and has held engineering positions of increasing responsibility.
“I never really paid a whole lot of attention to the number of women I was working with,” she recalls. “I was just excited to be doing what I was doing. I never once questioned if I belonged in the engineering area or in the auto industry. I just knew it was where I wanted to be.
“I was in the minority, but it wasn’t a lot different than engineering school. And while there weren’t that many women around, there were enough — and in positions that I aspired to be in — so it didn’t occur to me that it wasn’t a possibility.”
The possibilities quickly became reality.
As the chief of staff to the executive vice president of global product development, purchasing and supply chain, West coordinated product processes from start to finish. She eventually returned to her roots and led the Global Noise and Vibration Center, and later orchestrated and led the merger of two distinct GM engineering centers into one agile, efficient organization, the GM Accessibility Center of Excellence, which works across the entire organization using technology and innovation to unlock barriers to mobility innovations.
“I commend GM for always recognizing and promoting diversity,” West says. “The encouragement of people I had a lot of respect for planted the seed that I could think bigger.”
Next on West’s rise up the GM corporate ladder was president of GM Canada.
“GM Canada is like a company within a company,” she says. “It was really fun and a huge growth opportunity. I enjoyed the breadth of responsibility that I had. It was one of my best assignments.”
Now, as president of GM North America since January 2024, West is charged with leading the sales and service network.
“It felt very natural to come back to the North American organization, and I’m humbled and grateful for the opportunity,” she says. “My big goals are business growth. We’re expanding our EV portfolio and, at the same time, (we) have the best ICE portfolio we’ve ever had.”
There are also perks for being among GM’s leadership, such as attending the 2024 Indianapolis 500 and delivering the call to start the engines at the Detroit Grand Prix. “That’s a fun part of the job,” West says.
