General Motors’ latest proxy filing spells out a nearly $30 million payday for CEO Mary Barra and a rich sign-on haul for the automaker’s new chief product officer, offering an unusually detailed look at how GM is paying both its longtime boss and the tech leader it just lured to Detroit.
As reported by the Detroit Free Press, GM’s board approved an increase to Barra's long-term compensation opportunity and presented the move as a reward for the company’s strong 2025 performance. That same proxy filing also spotlighted hefty new-hire awards for the company’s latest high-profile recruit.
According to StockTitan, which posted GM's proxy statement, Barra’s 2025 total compensation came in at $29,895,868. The package included a $2.1 million base salary, $21,623,970 in stock awards, $4,956,000 in incentive-plan compensation and $1,215,898 in other payments. All told, that is about $399,231 more than she received in 2024.
The same filing details the pay laid out to bring in chief product officer Sterling Anderson. GM’s compensation committee signed off on $24,000,000 in multi-year new-hire awards. That bundle includes a $3,000,000 performance cash award scheduled to vest on Dec. 15, 2025, $10,000,000 in restricted stock units that vest in two equal chunks on July 29, 2026 and July 29, 2027, and $11,000,000 in performance share units that could vest, if the metrics are hit, in early 2027.
Why GM Is Pouring Money Into Product Talent
Sterling Anderson, an Aurora co-founder who previously worked on Tesla’s Model X and Autopilot, has been tapped to run end-to-end product across hardware and software as GM races to speed up development cycles and pack more software into its vehicles. GM announced the hire in May 2025 and described Anderson’s role as central to its integration strategy, according to Axios.
How GM Is Defending the Big Paydays
Inside GM, company leaders and the board’s compensation committee are pointing to 2025 results, including stronger cash generation and shareholder returns, as justification for both rewarding existing executives and putting rich offers in front of new senior hires. Those themes were front and center in a Jan. 27 investor update that also unveiled a $6 billion share-repurchase authorization and a dividend increase, positioning executive pay as one piece of a broader capital allocation and retention strategy, per a company announcement on PR Newswire.
What happens next is where things get interesting. Anderson’s restricted stock units are set to vest in two installments on July 29, 2026 and July 29, 2027. The performance share units are tied to specific targets and could pay out on Feb. 6, 2027, if those goals are met. Investors, proxy advisers and rank-and-file employees will be watching closely to see whether those performance hurdles are cleared and how the board continues to juggle retention pay with shareholder returns, according to the details laid out on StockTitan.
