Alicia Boler Davis was one of the highest-ranking women at General Motors (GM) when she won the 2014 Technologist of the Year Award.

Before retiring from GM, she served as a senior vice president where she led the company’s connected customer activities, including infotainment, OnStar, and GM’s Urban Active personal mobility initiatives. She was also executive vice president for global manufacturing.

Boler Davis was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan. She earned a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from Northwestern University and a master’s in engineering science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute before beginning her career with GM as a manufacturing engineer.

Later, she became a plant manager, the first Black woman to be appointed to that position at a GM vehicle manufacturing plant. She also served as plant manager with dual roles as vehicle line director and vehicle chief engineer.

Boler Davis also volunteered in her community as a member of The Links Inc. and as a board member of the Care House of Oakland County.

Currently, Boler Davis is senior vice president of global customer fulfillment at Amazon. In this role, she leads fulfillment sites around the world. Boler Davis also has responsibility for Amazon Fulfillment Technologies, the team that builds the technical solutions.

In addition, she leads the network of customer service operations and technology, as well as the sustainability, product assurance, real estate, construction, and procurement organizations.