COMMENTARY
Maryann Keller (1943-2022), worked as analyst when Wall Street was dominated by men. She followed the auto industry, also known as being male-dominated.
Author David Halberstam included this tidbit in his book about the auto industry, The Reckoning, published in 1986.
“’Listen, girlie,’ said one of the executives of Cadillac, a particularly troubled company, to Maryann Keller, an astute and skeptical financial analyst on Wall Street, ‘it’s ready to turn around, and it’s going to be bigger than ever.’”
That grand turnaround at Cadillac never materialized. And Keller was one of the voices suggesting then-GM CEO Roger Smith’s plans weren’t materializing.
Keller did her own book, Rude Awakening, in 1989 about GM. But her insights about the industry extended beyond Detroit-based GM.
“As a financial analyst for the automotive industry, I find much of my professional life is consumed with looking at the numbers and making my judgments based on what they tell me,” Keller wrote in the book’s introduction.
“But contrary to what many people think, an analyst’s job isn’t abstract,” she added. “It’s really about talking and listening and observing.”
Over a long career following the auto industry, Keller developed contacts at automakers that journalists would envy.
As news of Keller’s passing over the past week spread, journalists and former journalists took note.
Maryann Keller spoke plainly. For journalists, she provided colorful quotes. But they were quotes based on knowledge and had plenty of insight.
Keller knew what was happening at many automakers. And her 1980s skepticism about GM proved correct. The company was forced to declare bankruptcy in the 2000s and required a U.S. government bailout.
Keller, however, was not someone who engaged in hit-and-run. She knew that automakers had many, many people who were working to making things better.
GM in the 1980s “makes for a fascinating story,” she wrote. “It is the story of a company that recognized it needed to change, but found itself hopelessly tangled in a complex corporate culture that resisted change.”
For a time, I was among the journalists who called her regularly about what was happening in the auto industry. After 2008, we lost touch. I regret that. I would love to hear her take about what’s going on at GM with its drive to develop electric vehicles.
And I can only imagine what her views were concerning Elon Musk and Tesla. The auto industry has lost an important voice.
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