Historically the automotive industry has been dominated by men, but things are slowly but surely changing. Two women are heading leading auto brand, which a few years ago would have been unheard of.

The glass ceiling in the industry is showing cracks with women moving up the ladder in executive roles. The world is becoming more politically correct, and workplace rules demand gender diversity. Moreover, the changing technology and the use of Artificial Intelligence, Augmented Reality, and innovations require a deep, diverse talent pool. Ignoring 50 percent of this pool makes no sense in such a situation hence, companies are making a conscious effort to have more women board members and executives.

A recent online survey by Deloitte and Automotive News found that only 1 percent of women they interviewed considered the auto industry as a viable career option. The reasons were a challenging environment, pay gap, lack of opportunity for progress, and the caliber of people employed.

The gender statistics in the industry also give a simile picture. According to a report by Catalyst: In 2018, only 16 women (8%) were executives in the top 20 motor vehicles and parts companies in the Fortune Global 500. This is a small change from 14 women (7%) in 2014.

Over half of the top 20 auto companies have no woman executive on their board.

5 Women Leaders in Automotive Industry

The top leadership in the industry is aware of the talent gap, and 56 percent admit that it is a critical under-utilized set of workers. In the United States, women held 26.7% of jobs in the motor vehicles and motor vehicles equipment manufacturing industry in 2017, according to the Bureau of Labour.

Here we take a look at the top five women industry leaders in the automotive industry.

Mary Barra CEO and chairman of General Motors

Since 2014, she is the first female head of any auto major company and was named as the fourth most powerful woman and fifty-third most influential person in 2018. Barra is a Stanford graduate with a degree in engineering and a masters in business administration. She began her career at GM in 1980. She has served in executive positions in the Human Resource division, manufacturing, supply chain, and as a global vice president of product development.

She has a vision of zero crashes, to save lives; zero emissions, so future generations can inherit a healthier planet; and zero congestion, so customers get back a precious commodity – time, for General Motors. She is taking forward GM by focusing on their core strength of cars, trucks, and crossovers and looking to the future with connectivity, electrification, and autonomous driving.

Under her leadership, General Motors was ranked number one on the 2018 Global Report on Gender Equality. GM is one of only two global companies with no gender pay gap.

Pamela Fletcher Vice President Innovation General Motors

Pamela Fletcher has been with GM for more than 15 years, and prior to that, she was Executive Chief Designer of Global Electrified Vehicles.

She launched the Chevrolet Bolt, the first long-range, affordable electric car. As VP of Global Innovation and Research, she focuses on business model innovation and oversees new businesses. In R&D, Fletcher is in charge of seven laboratories located around the world that are developing technologies such as battery chemistry, mixed materials science, smart manufacturing systems, and vehicle-to-infrastructure technology.

She has an engineering and management degree. She studied at Kellogs Institute and Northwestern University.

Linda Jackson CEO of French car company Citroen

Linda Jackson is a British leading a French car-making company. She joined Citreon UK in 2005 as a finance director and then moved on to become the managing director of Citreon UK and Ireland. She has been the chief executive officer of Citreon since 2014. She was named the most influential woman in the auto industry in 2018 by Autocar.

Jackson’s driven Citroën’s sales up 28 percent in her five years of leadership. In her tenure, she has helped the parent company Groupe PSA get back from the brink of bankruptcy. The Peugeot brand helped in the turnaround. PSA made a record €5.7 billion (£5.1 billion) operating profit in 2018. Groupe PSA is Europe’s second largest vehicle manufacturer.

Trudy Hardy Vice President of Marketing at BMW of North America

Trudy Hardy started her career in Jaguar, where she worked in brand management. She then moved to BMW in 2005 and worked her way up to VP marketing of North America in 2013. She helped roll out the MINI brand in America.

Hardy was named the Vice President of BMW Motorrad Americas in July 2019. Motorrad covers motorcycle operations in the US, Canada, and Mexico, as well as Brazil (where BMW has a motorcycle production plant) and Argentina. She handles direct market operations in all of Latin America.

Trudy Hardy is known to be an avid motorcycle rider. Her work at BMW has covered brand strategy, positioning, communications, and product management.

Linda Hasenfratz President, Chairman, and CEO at Linamar Corporation

Lina Hasenfratz succeeded her father, Frank Hasenfratz, as the CEO of Linamar Corporation. She is in charge of Canada’s second-largest automotive parts manufacturer. She has earned many hosannas for her leadership role. In 2014, she was named Canada’s EY Entrepreneur of the Year, the first woman ever to be given that title. In 2018, she was also named Canada’s Outstanding CEO of the Year and named to the Order of Canada.

Under her leadership, Linamar has transformed from a $1.3-billion auto-parts company to a $6.5-billion diversified global manufacturer, operating 60 manufacturing locations and eight R&D centers in 17 countries. Linamar’s expansion has created more jobs — from a base of 9,400 in 2002 to over 28,000 in 2018.

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Companies that succeed to attract, retain and recognize female talent as a part of their talent management strategies seem to face a fresh set of challenges. What’s interesting to note is that these drawbacks do not result from perception bias. A study by SCM World found that 74% of men think that women’s natural skills differ from men – and that women’s skill sets are highly regarded in the supply chain management (see Figure 1). These skills include multi-tasking, communication, collaboration, and influence.

In the fast-paced world of supply chain management, excelling at these skills would suggest that more women would hold senior level positions. But as we move close to the top of the supply chain organizational chart the disparity becomes increasingly apparent at senior levels. For instance, women account for just 11% of supply chain executives, the Gartner research shows.

How to succeed?

There has been a lot of enthusiasm, commitment and money going into many initiatives to get women into supply chain and logistics, but the results are far from satisfactory.

Young professionals oftentimes refrain from applying to jobs in supply chain management as they are told that the industry is too rough and tough for females. This is not a gender issue; it is a broader societal issue one cannot change singlehandedly. But collectively, employers, educators, government administrators and not-for-profit organizations can do better and give girls and young women more exposure to supply chain management jobs, female role models, and career awareness and planning.

A 2018 study by Microsoft found that girls and young women who know a woman in a STEM profession are more likely to feel empowered when they engage in STEM activities (61 percent) than those who don’t know a woman in a STEM profession (44 percent) (see Figure 2).

Women Leaders in Supply Chain & Logistics

We need more female mentors and role models in supply chain and logistics industry in order to tip the scales in favor of a gender-balanced workforce. With more exposure to positive role models, young professionals could find women that they can relate to and aspire to be.

More importantly, we must show how women leaders can contribute to the success of the company. Here at Industry Leaders Magazine, we celebrate and recognize the success of prominent women leaders in the supply chain industry.

These highly accomplished supply chain executives provide the best sort of role models for girls and young women interested to pursue a career in the supply chain industry.

Renata Mihich Managing Director Canada, DHL Global Forwarding

Traditional wisdom tells us to strive for lush titles and management roles to ultimately land a top leadership job. Sadly, this is far from the truth, as we’ve learned from Renata Mihich’s career. Adaptability and resilience is the greatest asset you can possess to accelerate your career growth in any sector. When you’re adaptable and resilient you’re not another cog in the wheel. You become self-sufficient, get to learn a lot, and come out as a complete package who knows things from ground reality to bottom up.

Renata Mihich has an illustrious 20+ year career with DHL where she has held just about every role in the organization, including customer services, sales, and marketing. Today, she calls the shots as the managing director for the organization in Canada. It may have only been five years since she was made MD, but her tenacity for leadership and innovation show she’s more than a match for the traditionally male-dominated supply chain industry.

Denise Kopko Senior Vice President Operations, Veolia North America

Maybe you’ve witnessed your boss or a coworker indulge in sexism as they ask you to fetch coffee for everyone in the meeting room, or take up on an administrative task because “women are more organized.” Denise Kopko is here to teach you to exude confidence and command the respect you deserve.

“Early in my career, we had a train derailment and I was called into the vice president’s office,” Kopko recalls in an interview with Inbound Logistics. “His feet were up on the desk, his shoes were off, and he asked me to get him a cup of coffee.”

“I decided to stand my ground, and said, “I just spent four years putting myself through college and it wasn’t to get you a cup of coffee. If you’d like to discuss the reason I came into the office, let me know, and I’ll be glad to talk to you about that.””

Denise Kopko graduated with a degree in logistics and supply chain before it was a popular major. Today she’s the vice president of operations-commercial, supply chain and logistics, with Veolia North America. 

Lynn Torrel Chief Supply Chain and Procurement Officer, Flex

When you travel, you are able to discover not only yourself but also the world you live in. Exploration of other countries gives you an opportunity to see how other cultures execute business or products in your industry. While living in Europe, Lynn Torrel worked with colleagues, customers, and supplies and got an opportunity to learn how to balance global requirements with local needs.

Today, Lynn Torrel has more than 25 years of experience in supply chain and procurement and has proved to be a valuable asset to companies like Avnet United and Velocity where she handled some of their largest strategic customers and supply chain programs globally.

Torrel was appointed to her current role at Flex in September 2019. Under her leadership, Flex is maximizing process efficiencies and productivity and maintaining strong relationships with vendors and distributors.

Christine Morgan Regional Vice President, Pilot Freight Services

A Harvard Business School study noted that nearly everyone, regardless of gender, placed a higher value on their families than on their work. Sadly, women are told they’re not the right fit for career advancement opportunities because of the common belief that they are more committed to family than men are. How women react to such biases can also affect their ability to succeed and thrive. Often times they hold themselves back because they don’t know people or are afraid what others might think.

Christine Morgan was nearly passed up for an opportunity to manage a larger station because her new boss assumed the single mother wouldn’t be willing to move. Morgan let him know that if the right opportunity presented itself, she would certainly put her ring in the hat. In six months, she had three opportunities presented to her.

When women are not assertive, they settle for things and end up being unhappy at work. The onus isn’t just on women. The extent to which women in male-dominated sectors thrive partly depends on the kind of opportunities and treatment they receive at work.

In her role as regional vice president, Christine Morgan has successful implemented business growth strategies, and facilitated solutions to enhance new and existing client accounts and grew final mile deliveries.

Do you have a role model that encouraged you to pursue STEM? Keep the conversation going and share your experience with us in a comment below.

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Do women make better leaders than men? Many people think so, due to some of the qualities that men lack. Even if they do, the number of females at the executive positions in giant companies is really low as compared to their male counterparts.

If women make better leaders than men, what could be the reason? Here’s what:

#Communication Skills

Women have better soft skills than men and they are aware of how to apply it in the corporate world. Better communication is a must have when it comes to leading a company or a team, and women leaders are better at it than men. Women are great listeners and that helps them to better relate to employees’ and customers’ problems or concerns. Women tend to be more discussion oriented while men prefer actions over words. Being a better communicator helps build stronger relationships and establish trust with employees and customers.

#Teamwork

Women have a natural tendency to work by collaborating with others. Women like to work in a team, share ideas among team members and find a solution that will be in favour of everyone in the team. Men are habituated to direct everyone as alpha leaders while women leaders are harmony builders and take the approach of beta leaders, which is more effective leadership style of the modern age.

#Business Ethics

Women have stronger business ethics than men which make them better at some point in time. They also consider rights of others and acknowledge their efforts which are part of their ethical choices. Such ethical behavior is highly valued by employees in any company. Women have a high emotional intelligence (EQ) which is a trait found in the best leaders of the world.

#Patience

Women are far more patient than men and as a result, they don’t rush into decisions. Hurried decisions may not prove to be good for company’s growth in some of the cases. Women are willing to wait longer and dig deeper before jumping to conclusions or making decisions. Even when they say that some company has achieved an overnight success, it takes them almost a decade to reach that position. Winners are those who are patient enough to take small steps towards a specific goal.

#Motivating others

Women are really good at encouraging others, appreciating efforts, and giving rewards, so employees who work with women managers are more engaged than those who are supervised by male managers.

Now that you know that women make better leaders, it’s time for all the women to take charge and show their leadership skills to the world.

Happy Women’s Day!

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