In a commentary piece in Fortune, writer Ben Geier nominates General Motors CEO Mary Barra as his Crisis Manager of the Year. Her ascension to the GM throne on January 15, 2014 was accompanied by fireworks – some celebrating the move, some aimed directly at her. Then, two weeks into the job, a bomb was lobbed in.

Or perhaps we could say that a bomb lurking on the premises for more a decade finally went off. That explosion has flared out to 26 million recalled vehicles in the US, 30 million worldwide. The damage includes a $2.7 billion recall tab so far, not to mention the very public revelation that GM knew about the problem since 2004, plus there has been an extrajudicial claims process that has to sift through 2,489 claims so far.