Winners 2026

Executive 2026

Lisa Brankin was promoted to the position of UK chair at Ford’s national sales company in August 2023 in addition to the responsibility of being managing director of Ford of Britain and Ireland, a role she took on in November 2020. Brankin’s posting to the very top position within this key Ford market – its largest in Europe – was the pinnacle of more than 20 successful years rising through the ranks of the brand. Originally from Northern Ireland, Brankin graduated from the University of Ulster in 1990 and joined Ford as graduate trainee in the same year. She quickly moved into senior positions, including director of dealer operations, marketing manager for dealers and consumers, and communications, events and sponsorship manager. In more recent years, Brankin was promoted to marketing director, before becoming sales director, and then in 2019 she was promoted to director of passenger cars, overseeing all of Ford’s sales and marketing in Britain and Ireland. During her time at the company, she has overseen Ford’s shift away from its traditional position of passenger car leader to a company with greater focus on the more profitable sales of light commercial vehicles, where Ford remains number one.

 

Executive 2026 nominees

Lorraine Bishton, International Motors

Lorraine Bishton was appointed in 2023 to head Subaru in the UK for importer International Motors (IM) after she moved from her previous role of sales and marketing director for McLaren’s MSO division. Since then, she has been appointed head of passenger car brands for IM, which includes Subaru and Chinese EV brand Xpeng. Prior to that, Bishton, who has been a finalist in the Autocar Great Women awards under her previous surname of Toolan, was global head of marketing for JLR Special Vehicle Operations after joining the company in 2000 under then owner Ford. She started her automotive career with Ford’s credit division.

Lina Ribeiro, Dacia

Lina Ribeiro was appointed to head Renault Group value brand Dacia in the UK in January 2026 after impressing in her previous role of leading new car sales operations for the Renault Group in the UK, a job she had held since 2021. Ribeiro joined Renault UK in 2002, starting as a parts marketing administrator, and has since risen through the ranks of its sales operations, including three years looking into customer satisfaction for Renault France. In her sales role, Ribeiro boosted Renault’s performance to help it become one of the fastest-growing car brands in the UK in 2023. She also improved both Renault’s and Dacia’s standing with dealers. A key focus for her in her new role will be expanding Dacia’s reach, which will include collaborating with the retailer network to focus on improving customer experience.

Kirsty Andrew, UTAC UK

Kirsty Andrew was promoted to her current role in January 2025 as head of the testing organisation’s operations in the UK, encompassing the Millbrook and Leyland development sites. Prior to that, Andrew was head of security and defence at UTAC, a role she moved into after overseeing UTAC’s Special Vehicles conversions division. Her long history of vehicle testing and development includes many years in motorsport and she has been sales director at Cosworth and head of commercial operations for Williams Advanced Engineering. She also worked directly for the Williams Formula 1 team as its business development manager.

Jane Pocock, Copart

Jane Pocock leads the UK arm of Copart, a US-based global company that specialises in the disposing of cars for the insurance industry, including write-offs. Pocock oversees a 22-site network of operations, where vehicles are collected, processed and prepared for auction. The UK arm is the second-longest-established division within global company Copart Inc. Pocock joined the firm from online LCV leasing firm Vans Direct, which she took from a start-up in 2009 to its 2019 sale to Vertu for £7.5 million. Prior to that, she spent 17 years with the AA.

Melanie Lane, Pod

Melanie Lane joined the home and workplace EV charger company in 2024 after taking over from interim CEO and former Aston Martin boss Andy Palmer. Initially launched as Pod Point, the company now has over a quarter of a million customers. Lane switched from Shell Recharge, where she was CEO of the company’s electric charging division based in Amsterdam. A Shell lifer prior to her move, she joined the firm in Australia as a maintenance manager and rose to increasingly senior roles, including general manager of retail in the UK and general manager of aviation in Europe.

Nicola Burnside, Alpine UK

Nicola Burnside became the UK head of Renault Group sporting brand Alpine in August 2023 and has overseen its growth from a single-model sports car marque to a three-car line-up that includes the A290 hot hatch and new A390 fastback crossover. An amateur racing driver, Burnside joined Alpine from Mercedes-Benz Vans in the UK, where she had worked for nearly six years in and around marketing, rising to head of customer experience and digital marketing. Prior to that, she was at the Volkswagen Group in the UK, becoming head of product marketing for Seat and head of digital marketing for Skoda.

Fiona Howarth, Octopus Electric Vehicles

Fiona Howarth oversees the division within the energy provider company that has positioned itself as a one-stop shop to provide customers with electric vehicles, including leasing the car, providing specialist energy tariffs, installing chargers and, in the future, using EVs as energy storage to feed back into the grid. Howarth founded Octopus Electric Vehicles and has been its CEO from its inception in 2017, moving from Ovo Energy, where she was head of transformation. Before that, Howarth worked at British Gas, where she was in charge of product and commercial for the Hive smart control system.

Pia Wilkes, Vehicle Certification Agency

As head of the Vehicle Certification Agency, Pia Wilkes is responsible for ensuring that the regulations governing the safety and emissions of all cars sold in the UK are met. Wilkes moved there in 2016 from a managing role in automotive testing organisation Horiba MIRA. She started her career at Lotus as a type approval engineer in 1996, before shifting to TWR and then Prodrive as head of business development in 2003. Wilkes was awarded a CBE in 2000 for services to motor transport.

Sue Robinson, Retail Motor Industry Federation

Sue Robinson is in charge of the day-to-day running of the National Franchised Dealers Association. She is also a director at the Retail Motor Industry Federation, of which the NFDA is part. She started her role in 2006 after joining the RMI first as press officer, before moving to PR and policy manager. Robinson began her career in magazine journalism after gaining a degree in social science and criminology from Birmingham University.

Nicole Melillo Shaw, Volvo Car UK

Nicole Melillo Shaw was appointed managing director for Volvo Car UK in November 2023 after impressing as the company’s commercial operations director, a position she was promoted to in 2022. The role is one of the biggest within the Volvo organisation, because the UK is the Swedish brand’s third-largest market, after China and the US. She joined the firm in 2020 as consumer director, responsible for retail sales, after working for seven years at biopharma company GSK where she rose to the position of global marketing director for skin healthcare.

Lynn Calder, Ineos Automotive

Lynn Calder was called to head up the automotive division within the Ineos chemicals conglomerate in 2022 after spending six years at the group, which included multiple CEO roles. She was formerly in private equity with energy-focused Lime Rock Partners, where she was a vice-president. Calder’s responsibility has taken the off-road-focused brand from its design, development and preliminary manufacturing phase into a major sales operation, marketing the Grenadier and related models globally and navigating numerous headwinds, including supply chain squeezes and the imposition of tariffs in its key market of the US.

Nicola Dobson, Stellantis UK

Nicola Dobson’s rise through the ranks at Peugeot and then the wider Stellantis organisation propelled her in January 2025 to the appointment of UK managing director of Peugeot, a brand she first joined in 2000 as a commercial graduate. She secured this role after impressing in her previous position, where she oversaw used cars for the whole Stellantis group. During her ascent at Peugeot, she acquired knowledge from across the UK sales organisation, including in fleet, daily rental, marketing, communications and distribution, before being appointed marketing director for Citroën in the UK in 2021.

Vicky Read, ChargeUK

Vicky Read was the first employee of the UK’s EV charging industry association, ChargeUK, after helping to establish it in 2023 and was made CEO in 2024. Since then, the association has grown its membership to more than 20 companies, including all the major charger providers in the UK. Read saw the need for an organisation to help steer policy on this fast-growing business sector while she was in a previous role as head of UK public affairs for charger company Fastned, which she joined in 2021 after moving from fibre network operator City Fibre.

Cathy O’Callaghan, Ford

Cathy O’Callaghan became president and CEO of Ford Credit in February 2024 and reports directly to Sherry House, Ford’s chief financial officer. O’Callaghan leads the team responsible for Ford’s financial services business, a key profit centre within the US company. O’Callaghan was previously vice-president, controller and chief accounting officer for Ford, during which she helped separate Ford’s financial reporting into three business segments, including Model E for electric vehicles. Prior to that, she was CFO of Ford South America. She started at Ford in 1990 and held a number of key roles in the UK and mainland Europe, including finance director of Ford of Britain.

Karen Anderson, Vertu Motors

Karen Anderson helped set up Vertu in 2006 in order to create a sizeable dealer group through acquisition. That has since been achieved and Vertu currently has 142 outlets, now all branded Vertu after the company retired its Bristol Street Motors brand. As a board member, Anderson handles the legal and regulatory side of the organisation as company secretary as well as leading the financial side, reporting to CEO Robert Forrester. Before joining Vertu, Anderson was group financial controller for Reg Vardy, which she joined in 2000 after seven years of working for consultancy firm Arthur Andersen.

Jean Smith, Volkswagen Financial Services UK

Jean Smith holds the key post in the Volkswagen division that finances vehicles sold at Volkswagen Group brand dealerships in the UK, which has long been the largest of the ‘captive’ (ie manufacturer-backed) finance houses. She moved to this role in 2019 from the position of joint managing director at Volkswagen Financial Services in the Netherlands. She has been with the division since 2001, working in the UK, mainland Europe and China, where she helped launch Volkswagen Financial Services operations in 2004. She joined after working in various financial services roles at BMW. Smith is a member of both the Institute of Directors and the Chartered Management Institute.

Melanie Shufflebotham, Zapmap

Melanie Shufflebotham helped to establish charge point locator Zapmap in 2014 with a mission to accelerate the transition to EVs by creating a smarter mapping service. Now the company claims to be the UK’s leading charge point mapping and data service. Recent innovations include live pricing data being shown directly onto on charge point markers seen on the app, allowing drivers to filter on cost as well as availability, network and charger speed. Shufflebotham created Zapmap as a side project while joint managing director of online publisher Next Green Car, which she joined in 2010.

Ursula Wingfield, BMW Financial Services

In 2021, Ursula Wingfield expanded her role to include that of chief financial officer for BMW leasing company Alphabet in the UK, adding to her already sizeable responsibilities as CFO of BMW Financial Services in the UK, a position she has held since August 2020. Wingfield previously spent five years as CEO of Alphabet in Germany, a job she was promoted to from head of sales and marketing at BMW Bank. Prior to that, she had worked in financial services with the company in both Canada and in her native South Africa, where she first joined BMW. She studied in South Africa, gaining accreditation from the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants.

Avril Palmer-Baunack, Constellation Automotive Group

Avril Palmer-Baunack leads the ambitious pan-European Constellation Automotive Group that includes high-profile brands such as British Car Auctions, We Buy Any Car, online car sales company Cinch and the Marshall Motor Group. As such, Palmer-Baunack is one of the most senior female executives in the UK but she started out in the industry working the front desk in a car and van rental outlet. She has largely stayed in the automotive industry during her illustrious career, which has included stints at van leasing company Northgate and automotive services company Autologic.

Victoria Edmonds, EVA England

EVA England is a not-for-profit membership organisation that works to advance the interests of electric vehicle drivers – for example, advocating for the installation of cross-pavement charging. Victoria Edmonds joined in 2025 as CEO, having been at the forefront of UK government net zero and transport policy for nearly two decades. Prior to her current role, she spent three years as the head of the Office for Low Emission Vehicles (now OZEV), where she led the government’s development of its 2030 phase-out policy formalising a cut-off date for the sale of new petrol and diesel cars.

Rebecca Adamson, Honda Europe

Rebecca Adamson expanded her senior role as head of cars for Honda in the UK to include that of head of customer engagement across Europe. She was promoted to oversee Honda UK car sales in 2020 after impressing as head of network and commercial development, looking after the brand’s dealers. Adamson originally joined Honda in 1999, spending most of her career within sales operations. Outside of sales, she spent three years as head of corporate affairs for the company. Adamson is also a director of Honda Finance Europe, which provides instalment financing and leasing to Honda customers.

Jingbo Mao, Lotus Cars

Jingbo Mao was appointed to oversee the UK and global operations of Lotus in 2025 after taking over the European arm from former Lotus Europe head Matt Windle. Mao, who reports to Lotus Group CEO Feng Qingfeng, joined Lotus in 2022 as president of China operations after moving from Ford-owned Lincoln, where she was head of Asia Pacific and China for the US premium brand. Before that, she was head of marketing in China for Mercedes-Benz after building a career in journalism. Mao’s UK-based role is focused on improving sales and profits across Lotus, including broadening its appeal with the new extended-range EV version of the Eletre SUV.

Swarna Ramanathan, JLR

Swarna Ramanathan was hired by JLR in 2024 to lead the company’s strategy and help set the course for innovation, strategic foresights, alliances and collaborations. She joined JLR from consultants McKinsey, where she was a partner and leader at the company’s Centre for Future Mobility. There, she led McKinsey’s European practice on mobility retail, bringing the latest perspectives on how changes in the mobility sector are influencing automotive OEMs and how the EV charging landscape is evolving. Ramanathan is also the chair of InMotion Ventures, JLR’s investment arm for start-ups in mobility, tech and beyond.

Roisin Hopkins, Horiba MIRA

Roisin Hopkins is in charge of winning new work for the highly regarded UK-based Japanese-owned automotive testing facility and she reports directly to Horiba MIRA managing director Declan Allen. She also sits on the company’s board. Prior to her promotion in 2021, she was responsible for automotive testing operations, overseeing a staff of around 180 engineers and technicians. She joined the company in 1990 after gaining a degree in mathematics and engineering and a PhD in System Identification Occupant Simulation from Loughborough University.

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