New plant manager makes GM history

She started as an engineer and has worked her way up the ranks.

MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS

DETROIT — Alicia Boler-Davis, 38, will become the first black female plant manager at a General Motors Corp. vehicle assembly plant Oct. 1 when she takes the reins in Arlington, Texas.

Currently assistant plant manager at GM’s Pontiac Assembly, Boler-Davis has risen steadily through the ranks in her 13 years at GM, and her hope is to master her latest assignment and keep working her way up.

“My primary goal and focus is to be a good manager in Arlington and to lead the plant to become the industry leader in safety,” Boler-Davis said.

In Arlington, she’ll lead more than 2,400 workers who assemble the Chevrolet Tahoe and other large SUVs.

Long-term, she said, her goal is to become an officer at GM.

After graduating from Romulus (Mich.) High School, Boler-Davis earned a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., and a master’s degree in engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y.

Boler-Davis began her career at GM in 1994 as a manufacturing engineer in the company’s midsize and luxury car division in Warren, Mich.

Promotion

She was promoted to senior engineer in that division in 1997, then a year later transferred to GM’s Detroit-Hamtramck plant.

“I liked the plant,” Boler-Davis said, and asked to stay there. GM agreed to the request, and she rotated through a variety of roles with increasing responsibility.

In 2004, she became area manager of the paint shop at GM’s Fort Wayne Assembly plant in Indiana.

The next year, she was appointed area manager of the plant’s body shop.

Then in 2006, she was promoted to her current position in Pontiac, Mich.

When she assumes the role of plant manager in Arlington, she will replace John Dansby, who was recently named plant manager at Pontiac Assembly.

Dansby replaced Dennis Dougherty, who is the new director of GM’s Ramos Arizpe, Mexico, complex. And Dougherty replaced Hector De Hoyos, who joined the staff of GM North America Vice President of Manufacturing.