Honouring our Automotive 30% Club 2022 Inspiring Automotive Women Award Winners
The Automotive 30% Club Inspiring Automotive Women Awards ceremony took place on Monday 17th October at the prestigious Luton Hoo Hotel, with over 120 guests joining our 31 winners for an evening of celebration and recognition of their incredible achievements.
The awards were sponsored by Jardine Motors Group for the fourth year, and the celebratory dinner was co-sponsored by Toyota (GB) plc, Lookers plc, TrustFord, MotoNovo Finance, and MHP Consulting.
Julia Muir, Founder of the Automotive 30% Club was, unfortunately, unable to personally host the proceedings this year, due to Covid illness, but Rebecca Clark, Sales Director of Automotive 30% Club Patron Member Auto Trader UK, and former Inspiring Automotive Woman of the Year in 2020 gamely stepped in on behalf of Julia to enable the show to go on!
Julia comments: “Heartfelt congratulations to all our amazing Inspiring Automotive Women Awards winners of 2022. I’m so terribly disappointed that I wasn’t able to attend the dinner and to congratulate all our winners in person but I know everyone there had a great time. A huge thank you to Rebecca Clark for hosting. I have a fabulous support network of wonderful people and I’m very grateful to all of them for ensuring our winners and guests had a very enjoyable evening”.
Rebecca Clark opened the ceremony, adding:
“All the winners are fabulous “real models” who are helping to attract women to join the sector, are inspiring women to progress in their careers, and are playing a key role in driving inclusive change in their companies. The winners are truly inspirational. We thank all these wonderful women for the work they do to make the automotive industry an environment in which diverse women can thrive, and we also appreciate those who took the time to nominate them.”
Rebecca then welcomed each of our Inspiring Automotive Women Award winners to the stage to accept their awards, as guests proudly cheered in celebration of their achievements.
Jennifer Koontz, Assistant Vice President European was named as our Inspiring Automotive Woman of the Year. In her acceptance speech Jennifer added:
“I challenge each of you to not become complacent. We shouldn’t be satisfied with simply increasing numbers or moving women through the ranks. We need to keep our foot on the accelerator to make sure that our organisations mirror the customers we are doing business with and the communities that we are operating in. It’s about continuing to engage and create practices and policies that are scalable and consistent.
“We can and will continue to make significant improvements. As leaders, this means openly and authentically embracing individual differences, celebrating diversity, actively listening, and being curious and vulnerable when asking questions. Learning is a continuous process. We must bring others on the journey with us, lead by example and, most importantly, make everyone feel valued.”
Professor Jim Saker explained how tough the judging task was this year, and said
“Over the years a transformation has taken place. We have moved from identifying inspiring women who perform brilliantly within their organisation to women who are in addition doing great things that benefit the wider community. In so doing they are positioning our sector as an attractive place for women to work but more importantly the progress and succeed.”
Sophie Oak, Communications Manager at the Automotive 30% Club hosted our Special Recognition Award Winners panel, featuring Inclusive Leader of the Year Laura Brailey of Mazda UK, HR Game Changer award winner Mandy Smith of Close Brothers Motor Finance, Trailblazer of the Year Kerry Allred of Marshall Motor Group, Rising Star of the Year Joanna Duraj of Bentley Motors, and Diversity Champion Hannah Litt formerly of Motorpoint.
A particular highlight was hearing about Kerry Allred’s amazing work with girls with autism and her book “I am Amy not Autism”, the proceeds of which go into a Trust to help support a little girl called Amy.
We all enjoyed hearing their reactions to receiving their awards, and you will be able to read about their thoughts and opinions in the coming weeks via the Inspiring E-Zine!
Following the close of the ceremony, our guests enjoyed an evening of music, socialising, and of course making good use of our magic mirror!
We would like to say a special congratulations to all of our Inspiring Automotive Women Award Winners (to see the full list please click here).