General Motors Names Barra as HR Head

General Motors has made Mary Barra its new head of human resources, replacing the retiring Katy Barclay.

Barra, currently vice president for global manufacturing engineering, takes over HR on October 1st, the same day GM finishes laying off 4,000 workers. She has been with GM since 1980, but has no HR experience.

General Motors is an automaker founded by William C. Durant, based in Detroit, Michigan. It was the world’s second-largest automaker, as ranked by global unit sales, for 2008. It is undergoing the fourth-largest bankruptcy in US history.