Director of Car Dealer Partnerships
Valvoline Global
What is one of your proudest accomplishments of your career?
When I started my career at Valvoline, the industry’s male dominance was apparent, especially in leadership roles. With little industry experience, this presented a challenge for my own growth and advancement, but with determination and a cast of mentors and champions, I brought value utilizing my own style of relationship building and strategic business planning.
As I took on a leadership role in sales, I realized how much support and guidance I could also provide by mentoring women in their careers. My proudest accomplishment came in early 2022, when I stood up our Women in Sales Network. At Valvoline Global, one of our core values is Care, which we define as “It all starts with our people.” The group’s focuses include investing in the development and encouraging new career opportunities of current women team members, emphasizing how we recruit and retain new women to our teams, and above all else, creating a community to share our journeys where we can celebrate both personal and professional successes and encourage each other during difficult situations. This team helps build confidence to challenge the “status quo” and see women succeed in the aftermarket space. I feel honored to lead this group and can see the difference we’re making in the company by an increase in membership of 25% from new hires and women in sales management doubling in our business unit.
What is your best advice to other women who want to excel in the automotive industry?
Women offer a unique blend of talent and perspective, embracing our interpersonal skills and our innate nature to analyze data and situations creates a winning combination to propel the automotive industry in ways only we can. The best advice I could give is to speak up for opportunities you want and take risks. Get out of your comfort zone to finds ways you can contribute both to the success of your company and your customers. Trust your instincts and believe that you can be assertive and bold with your approach and thinking. I personally operate with a “never be afraid to fail” mentality and that if you don’t try then you won’t know, this can be risky but allows for new ideas to be brought to the team and growth to occur.