Alicia Boler-Davis began her career with General Motors as the first Black female plant manager, now she proudly serves as senior vice president for global quality and customer experience. Boler-Davis is now listed as one of the company’s top 20 executives for her diligence in managing over 2,500 employees and for her efforts in providing customers with the best overall service and experience in the industry, as well as market-leading connectivity and infotainment products and services.
Her hard work has not only been acknowledged internally, but has now been recognized on a national scale. Boler-Davis was recently honored at the 24th annual Trumpet Awards in Atlanta as the Corporate Executive of the Year for the impact she’s had on the automotive industry in creating new opportunities for women and minorities. Boler-Davis spoke briefly with rolling out to talk about her newest achievement, her long-term goals for the company and their newest mobility program, Maven.
Congratulations on winning Corporate Executive of the Year at the Trumpet Awards. What does this achievement mean for your personally?
Personally, I am just honored and humbled to have been recognized by the Trumpet Awards Foundation. They have been instrumental in supporting diversity and really supportive with issues that affect the African American community. To be honored by the organization like this means a lot to me, especially at this point in my career. I feel as though I have come a long way, but I know I still have so much more to do.
You’ve stated there is so much more you want to accomplish with General Motors. What are are your long term goals?
It’s not necessarily about reaching a certain level in the organization. It’s about continuing to help General Motors accomplish our goals as a recognized leader in the industry, as an innovation leader in technology, and the impact that we have on our communities that we do business in. There is a lot of work left to do and I feel I can make an impact. There are a lot of big changes happening in our industry.
What are the changes happening within the automobile industry and what do those changes mean for the Black consumer?
A lot of leaders here at General Motors say the automobile industry will change more in the next five years than it has in the past 50. Based on the emerging trends we see happening around the world shows us a convergence of the automobile industry and technology. If you even think about it from a mobile device perspective, people love their mobile devices whether it’s a phone or tablet. It is something that people are using to manage and enhance their lives. We are now seeing an intersection between the mobile device and the vehicle. We are seeing more capabilities for people to integrate their digital life in their vehicles. There will be more personalization and I am happy to lead OnStar, which has been around at General Motors for over 20 years. We have been a leader for safety and security but we are also a leader when it comes to overall connectivity.
College students and recent grads — what programs does General Motors have for them?
General Motors is a large global company, so we have opportunities for internships and co-ops positions in many different disciplines from engineering to marketing and sales. We have internships where students can be assigned a project to work on over the summer and work hands-on here at General Motors. They can apply real-life experiences to what they are working on here. Our co-ops students come back and spend a semester or two while they are in school. We also recruit college students to work around the globe.
What can you tell us about the new General Motors Brand, Maven?
Yesterday at General Motors, we announced a new brand called Maven. This is a brand that will launch personal services for mobility and that’s also a brand that I will help lead for General Motors. As you look at the trends that are happening in urban areas people are looking at alternative transportation in order to get around and if that is needed to get a ride with a driver to get from point A to point B or renting a vehicle for and hour or two over the weekend, General Motors is going to be a significant player in that area. Historically, we have really focused on our owner motto where we communicate with customers who have purchased vehicles and then use our services and build a relationship. We are moving into an area where we are going to continue to support our customers who have purchased our vehicles but we’re also going to have customers who want to use our new services. We recently announced our partnership with Lyft, which is a rideshare provider that will coincide with Maven. The connectivity piece is the central part of the services that we will offer.
