Autocar’s Great British Women in the Car Industry 2018

Autocar has named Linda Jackson, Citroën Global CEO, the most influential British woman working in the motor industry at its annual Great British Women in the Car Industry event, held in association with the SMMT.

Jackson topped Autocar’s shortlist of the top 100 British women in the automotive sector at a star-studded event at the Barbican Centre in London, earning the accolade for the second time in three years.

With over 40 years of experience in the motor industry, this award is the latest in a long line for Jackson, whose leading role in the resurgence of the French manufacturer has won plaudits from all corners of the car sector.

A day in the life of Citroen CEO Linda Jackson

Autocar editor Mark Tisshaw said: “Linda’s four-year tenure leading Citroën has overseen a remarkable and meteoric rise for the brand. The car industry needs more Linda Jacksons; she’s not only a role model, but an example to women wanting to work in the car industry that the sky is not the limit if you have the talent and determination.”

Receiving the overall award, as well as winning the ‘executive category’ honour, Jackson commented: “It’s an honour and testament to the hard work from everyone at Citroën that has helped build on what has been such a successful few years. Scroll through the gallery to take a look at all the winners of the 2018 awards.

Citroen boss Linda Jackson calls for diversity in car industry

COMMUNICATIONS - Fiona Pargeter - Customer experience director, Jaguar Land Rover

Fiona Pargeter holds one of the most enviable roles in automotive communications: the top job in the discipline at Jaguar Land Rover. As of July, her new position as customer experience director massively expands her previous role as global communications director to include not only responsibility for public relations – essentially getting JLR’s message across via publications such as Autocar – but also marketing communications, which speaks directly to potential customers via advertising, social media and what is now known as ‘experiential marketing’.

This includes direct public interaction with JLR products at motor shows and the like. She’s also in charge of ‘customer insight’, whereby market research is used to understand buyer behaviour which is then exploited in order to increase sales.

Pargeter joined JLR from Ford in 2009, arriving as global PR director for Land Rover, before being promoted to global communications director in 2012. Pargeter , from Airdrie in central Scotland, began her communications career at Nissan, which she joined in a PR role after graduating from the Paisley College of Technology. By 1996 Pargeter was working for Volvo and from there she moved to Ford.

PURCHASING – Sue Slaughter - Purchasing director, Ford of Europe & global TVM Ford of Europe

Slaughter’s rise to the highest levels of Ford senior management continues with this year’s promotion to the role of director of purchasing in Europe, reporting to Ford’s vice president of purchasing in Europe, Werner Puetz. She is also responsible for Ford’s Team Value Management (TVM) cost-cutting initiative within the supply chain, reporting to vice president of global purchasing Burt Jordan.

Slaughter moves back to the UK from Cologne, where she was chief operating officer for Ford’s joint venture gearbox maker Getrag Ford Transmissions. Slaughter joined Ford at its Dagenham plant as a business apprentice from school in 1987. In 1994 she gained a degree in business management including purchasing and logistics from the University of East London, and then rose through the ranks of business planning and logistics before moving to purchasing.

In her 2003-2006 role as senior purchasing manager for powertrain, she handled contract negotiations between Ford and PSA as the two collaborated on diesel engines. In her next role she was working with Fiat on parts sourcing for the joint production of the Fiat 500 and Ford Ka. During the financial crisis of 2008-2009 she caught the attention of bosses due to the way she handled key supplier relationships after some businesses important to Ford’s production collapsed in the downturn.  

PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT – Elizabeth Hill - Chief engineer: product engineering quality, Jaguar Land Rover

Elizabeth Hill is one of just 15 chief product engineers at Jaguar Land Rover, an indication of just how highly regarded she is at the British automotive giant. She was recently promoted to the head of product engineering quality, where she reports to David Nesbitt, director of vehicle engineering, infotainment and connectivity. Hill’s new role, in which she focuses on quality, is her second as a chief product engineer after joining the company’s ranks in 2016.

Most significantly that included overseeing the revamping of the Range Rover and Range Rover Sport, a line-up that now includes the firm’s first plugin hybrid models. She was in charge of the entire product development process, leading the teams that would help keep JLR’s consistent profitgenerator fresh in a ever-tougher luxury market. Hill has been working on large Range Rovers since moving to product development at the firm in 2005.

Prior to becoming a chief product engineer , she was architecture planning director , a role in which she helped decide the basic structure of large Range Rovers. Since 2005 she has shaped the future of the Range Rover Sport, Range Rover and key variants, such as the long-wheelbase version, as well as leading the Range Rover diesel hybrid (the company’s first hybrid model). Hill graduated from the University of Nottingham in 1997 with a BA in maths and started her engineering career in a temporary role for Lucas Varity Diesel Systems (now Delphi), where she worked on the fuel injectors for the diesel engine in the second-generation Land Rover Discovery. After a spell at Rolls-Royce aerospace, she moved to JLR, initially in manufacturing.

BRAND SALES - Rachael Thompson - Sales director, Mercedes-Benz UK

Rachael Thompson is the very definition of a rising star within the automotive industry, and her most recent move to the role of sales director for Mercedes in the UK cements her position as one of the most influential women in automotive. Since joining the profession in 1993 as a graduate trainee at Ford’s financial arm, Ford Credit Europe, Thompson hasn’t spent longer than three years in any one role. The position at Mercedes brings the number of automotive firms she has worked for to four . Thompson started on the financial side of the business after graduating with a degree in accountancy from the University of Huddersfield in 1992, but after almost seven years working for Ford Credit she made the switch to sales.

Her final task as area manager was to act as the link person between Ford Credit and Ford’s dealers, and that exposure prompted her next move to sales administration manager , monitoring dealership sales performance. Then came her first company switch, moving to Volkswagen brand in 2003 as an area manager , before being promoted to regional brand manager , overseeing 48 dealers. She then moved to marketing before returning to sales as national used car manager at Audi in 2010.

Her third company was JLR, to which she moved in 2012 as national sales manager for Jaguar. Then in 2016 came the big job: UK sales director for all of JLR in the UK. Thompson’s latest move happened this year , when she became UK sales director for Mercedes, the country’s fourth-largest brand after Ford, VW and Vauxhall.

MARKETING - Michelle Roberts - Marketing director, BMW UK

Michelle Roberts leads a team of 57 in her role as head of marketing for BMW and is the only women to sit on BMW’s UK board. It’s a huge accomplishment for Roberts, who joined the firm on a graduate scheme back in 2000. Roberts’ first major role at the firm came in 2006 when she was put in charge of marketing the 5 Series and 6 Series ranges, a position she held for four years. The big jump in her career came in 2011 when she was promoted to corporate communications manager , working specifically on the programme for BMW’s large-scale sponsorship of the London 2012 Olympic games.

The firm spent big on promotion, including a fleet of Minis and BMWs to transport athletes from site to site and the building of an impressive pavilion within the Olympic Park. Following the successful games, she switched to Mini brand communications before being promoted to overall head of marketing. Roberts, who is also a fluent German speaker , spent last year at BMW’s Munich HQ as head of international brand and communication management, her first posting abroad and a key move for future promotion. She returned to the UK this year after being promoted to her new role.

RETAIL SALES – Diana Mackinnon - General manager, Lexus Edgware

Diana Mackinnon has grown a small north London Lexus outlet attached to a larger Toyota dealership into what her boss claims is now the largest Lexus dealer in western Europe. In a tough financial climate she has delivered a profit of £625,000 in the financial year to the end of March – a figure that was £125,000 over budget, according to Simon Boxall, chief operating officer of the Lexus Edgware’s parent, Jemca Car Group. The dealer now sells around 6% of all Lexus cars in the UK. Mackinnon started in the industry after leaving school in 1985, working in dealership administration.

She then asked to switch to sales, which wasn’t a common request for a woman back in the 1980s. She joined HR Owen at Citygate Slough, now a Kia dealer but then Toyota, in 1995, rising to the position of sales manager . She then moved to the role of general manager responsible for two dealerships. She was promoted to the Lexus job in 2007 , overseeing the build of the new dealership in 2008 and orchestrating its high profile opening.

DESIGN - Helen Emsley - Executive director , global GMC and Buick design General Motors

Since winning the design category in our first Great British Women awards, Yorkshire-born Helen Emsley’s already very senior role at General Motors has expanded. Since 2013 she’s been head of design for GMC – GM’s US-centric but vitally important pick-up truck division. Then towards the end of 2016 she was also made head of design for Buick, a crucial brand for GM given its size in China, where it’s currently that country’s sixth most popular nameplate.

At the time her boss, GM design chief Michael Simcoe, had this to say about her promotion to Buick: “Helen is the right person to do it because she has this innate ability to pull a team together . We joke internally she has this ability to create a cult [around her].” Emsley’s route into auto design was a mix of conventional and improbable. She grew up in a mining village near Doncaster and had to fight to be able to study art at school. “My school meant well,” she says. “They thought it meant being a starving artist, they didn’t realise it could lead to lots of different types of jobs.” She went on to study textile design at  Birmingham Polytechnic, which was where she first thought about automotive design after entering a vehicle-themed competition with a range of fabrics for a Ford Escort.

After the Birmingham course she won a place on the prestigious vehicle design course at London’s Royal College of Art, again focusing on textiles. There she met GM’s head of design at the time, Wayne Cherry, who was impressed enough with her work to offer her a job at the Opel design studios in Russelsheim, Germany, in 1989. Almost ten years later she was promoted to manage GM’s colour and trim studio in the automaker’s Technical Centre in Warren, Michigan, and went on to become GM’s global director for colour and trim. Emsley  designed the interior of the 2014 Corvette Stingray before moving to her role as design boss at GMC.

HUMAN RESOURCES - Clare Martin - Group human resources director, Jardine Motors Group

Clare Martin was nominated by no less than eight people for this award, signifying the regard with which she’s held within Jardine Motors Group in her role as HR director . It’s an important job within UK automotive: Jardine is ranked as Europe’s 12th-largest dealer group according to figures from dealer analyst firm ICDP . Trading as Lancaster, its 64 dealers focus mainly on premium brands including Jaguar Land Rover, McLaren, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Aston Martin. Martin’s senior role includes a seat on the franchise board of the company and she reports directly to CEO Neil Williamson.

Martin has managed to increase the percentage of women in management roles from 8% in 2015 to 24% today, with the goal of reaching 28% by the end of this year . She also worked externally for organisations such as 30% Club and WISE, which are striving to achieve the same aim of promoting women within automotive. Martin joined Jardine in 2015 after moving from the role of global vice president for HR for software provider eFront. Since then she has won HR team of the year within the wider Jardine Matheson Group, which has 400,000 employees globally.

MANUFACTURING – Josephine Payne - Plant manager, Craiova engine plant, Romania Ford

Since winning the manufacturing category in these awards two years ago, Jo Payne’s career has continued to rise. She’s currently in charge of Ford’s huge Craiova engine plant in Romania, where the company makes the 1.0 and 1.5-litre EcoBoost petrol engines at a rate of more than 250,000 a year. She’s in control of a staff of 1203 and is responsible for all aspects of the plant, including the launch of new engines, financial budgets, safety and the relationship with local trade unions. It’s a big job.

She was promoted to the position in March and reports to Kieran Cahill, Ford of Europe’s director of powertrain operations. Prior to her current role Payne held a year-long position in which she was responsible for the ramping up of production of the all-important new 1.5-litre EcoBlue diesel at Ford’s Dagenham plant.

Payne first became interested in automotive at just 14 after attending a lecture hosted by the Institute of Engineering and Technology; her A-level physics teacher at her school in Plymouth nurtured her interest by teaching an electronics module just for her, and she went onto to graduate from the University of Southampton with a master’s degree in electronic engineering. She joined Ford at Liverpool’s Halewood plant in 1996 as a controls engineer and gradually built up her experience of engine and gearbox manufacturing from there. She has overseen projects in Bridgend, Dagenham, Valencia, Chihuahua in Mexico and Taubate in Brazil as well as delivering Ford’s first gas/diesel flexible line in Chennai, India.

GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS – Helen Foord - Head of government relations and public policy, Groupe PSA UK

If you work in government affairs it’s your job to be the link between your company and those who create the laws of our land. It’s an important role at the best of times but now it’s more crucial than ever, hence our decision to create a new category for this year. Huge issues such as Brexit, clean air concerns and a massive technology shifts towards both autonomous and electric cars are creating upheaval in the automotive industry on an unprecedented scale, particularly among those companies manufacturing in the UK.

It is therefore vital to have someone with the contacts and clout to get through to those making the decisions. Helen Foord had a tough job at Vauxhall as head of government relations, a role she’s held since 2006. She’s had to assure the government that Vauxhall had overcome its initial slowness to deal with the Zafira B fires – a potentially crippling issue for the company – and then update the government on its plans for its two plants in the UK, Ellesmere Port and Luton.

That became a whole lot trickier from last year when PSA bought Vauxhall/Opel from General Motors and it became clear that the deal would involve heavy cost-cutting. PSA recognised that Foord’s experience liaising with the government was an asset and last year gave her responsibility for the whole of PSA Groupe in the UK.

EXECUTIVE CATEGORY & OVERALL WINNER - Linda Jackson - Chief executive officer, Citroën

Linda Jackson is just beginning to see the fruits of her transformation of a brand that she took over in 2014. Global sales dropped to just over 1 million units for the brand last year , compared with 1.18m in 2014, on the back of a disastrous fall in China, but Jackson’s plan to focus on people-orientated SUVs and SUV-themed cars is paying off this year. Sales to the end of April were up 9%, driven partly by a whopping 48% resurgence in the Chinese market. Jackson was propelled to the top job after impressing as head of Citroën in UK and Ireland, a role she’d held since 2010. She restored confidence in the brand after clamping down on discounts, instead focusing on private sales via PCP finance. She was also successful in marketing the young DS brand to UK customers.

Jackson started in the automotive industry as an accounting clerk at Jaguar in 1977, then climbed through the ranks of MG Rover Europe, serving as CEO of France for three years. In 2005 she further drew on her love of all things French with a shift to Citroën, joining as chief financial officer for the brand. In 2009 she moved to France to become finance director for Citroën France before earning the top job at Citroën UK.

During her time at Citroën she has overseen launches that have returned the brand to its quirky design past and also focused on delivering a modern version of the ride comfort offered by the famous hydropneumatic suspension of old, including the C3 Aircross, C5 Aircross, C3 supermini and the car that really got people talking about the modern Citroën, the C4 Cactus.

Many congratulations to all the winners from everyone at Autocar