General Motors CEO Mary Barra, in the crosshairs of President Donald Trump's tweets, is No. 2 on Fortune's 2018 list of powerful businesswomen.

She proved it Monday. The 56-year-old CEO sent shock waves throughout North America announcing that three GM assembly plants in the United States and one in Canada will be closed at the end of next year. In all, more than 14,000 GM salaried and hourly jobs are at risk.

The cost-cutting moves, Barra said, will keep GM lean for long-term success. But even as GM cuts jobs, Barra said the company will keep hiring in areas to make it a leader in electric vehicles and self-driving cars.

Wall Street cheered. Monday afternoon, GM's stock price jumped 7.9 percent to $38.75, the highest since July.

But others expressed outrage. Trump demanded GM put a new product in its Lordstown, Ohio, plant soon. Greg Smith, an electrician at the Lansing Grand River Assembly Plant, summed up worker criticism, saying, "I think she’s already destroyed enough people and families since she's become CEO."

So is Mary Teresa Barra a shrewd, sharp businesswoman navigating a massive company through rapidly changing and uncertain times? Or a job-whacking, ruthless villain? Here's what she's done so far, a glimpse of who she is and how highly she's paid to do what she does.

Who is Mary Barra?

Barra was born in Royal Oak, falling in love at the age of 10, she recently told an audience at CityLab in Detroit. That first love was a red Chevrolet Camaro coupe, she said.

She joined GM in 1980 as a co-op student at age 18 while she earned a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering at Kettering University. She earned an MBA in 1990 at Stanford Graduate School of Business on a GM fellowship.

Along the way, Barra held a variety of engineering and administrative positions, including managing one of the plants she's shuttering, the Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly facility in 2003.

More:GM decision to close Detroit-Hamtramck met with shock, anger

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How did she become CEO?

Barra was a highly regarded but little-known career engineer — GM's global product development chief after a stint as human resources vice president — when she was thrust into the global spotlight as the first female CEO of an automaker in January 2014.

She was the hottest ticket in town, mobbed by reporters at auto shows and press conferences. But Barra put her head down and kept moving forward. After all, GM was still rebuilding after having filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2009. On top of that, Barra was faced with testifying before Congress about the ignition switch crisis that led to 124 deaths.

Barra's presentations to employees and the media when the crisis blew up have become textbook cases other companies cite in leadership and crisis-management seminars, despite GM's response to the crisis.

How does she lead?

Barra told the audience at CityLab that her "goal" is to make GM a technology company, not just a car company.

To do that, she has tried to create a culture that makes problems visible so that they can be solved, she said. After all, “When's the best time to solve a problem? The minute you know you have it," she said. "Problems don't solve themselves."

GM has aggressively pursued technologies and developed businesses, including ride sharing, autonomous vehicles and mass-market electric cars. The company this year secured a $2.25 billion investment from SoftBank Vision Fund, and Honda will invest $2.8 billion over the next 12 years in GM's self-driving unit, GM Cruise.

More:GM's future lineup will run on electricity, drive itself — and fly

What are her major achievements?

Under Barra, GM has shut down money-losing operations in Russia, Australia, India and South Africa.

She sold GM's European operations to Peugeot SA, thereby vacating a large, but unprofitable, market.

Barra has put data from customers at the heart of product development and manufacturing decisions. GM continues to study its customers' data to devise new revenue streams through in-car advertisers and learn customers' preferences to build loyalty.

She pushes to recruit top talent. Barra has recently gone to such Ivy League schools as Harvard University to personally recruit. The company also spent millions remodeling GM's offices in Detroit and Warren to create a worker-friendly culture that can compete with Silicon Valley companies.

How much is she paid?

Last year, her total compensation was $21.96 million — about 295 times as much as GM's median employee. That's actually a drop from 2016, when she was compensated $22.58 million.

That total compensation, which includes stock awards and pension payments, represents more than what she actually saw in pay. She received a $2.1 million salary and $4.96 million from her nonequity incentive plan.

While exact comparisons to her counterparts' compensation is difficult because there is flexibility in how companies calculate compensation, last year Barra held her own against Ford CEO Jim Hackett and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles' late CEO Sergio Marchionne.

Hackett’s annualized pay was $17.4 million (total compensation actually stood at $16.7 million in 2017). Marchionne was paid $11.95 million in base salary as well as a bonus and a stock award of $35.8 million, which covers a three-year period, rather than one year as is the case for other companies.

More:GM CEO Barra had compensation of $21.96M in 2017

Barra has said she was raised to have a diligent work ethic. And, while she has a driver to ferry her to work and business events, she likes to drive herself everywhere else. She said she can be spotted around Detroit driving her Cadillac Escalade SUV on any given evening and weekend.

Contact Jamie L. LaReau at 313-222-2149 or jlareau@freepress.com