Automotive News - November 9, 2015 - Supplement - 21W

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women," she said. "The members have
the opportunity to meet role models inside and outside the organization."
The group hosts four events a year in
Paris, most recently in August. The events
feature female speakers from Valeo's automaker customers, Valeo board members, authors and inspirational speakers.
Through Women Connected, Valeo also
seeks to identify talented young women
in the company and to provide mentoring
and training.
In 2012, Valeo launched a diversity board
that set recruitment
targets that match the
number of graduates in
a field. For example, if
20 percent of all engineering graduates in
North America are
women, Valeo would
decree that 20 percent
of its newly hired engi- Hanley: Men
are invited to
neers must be women.
The efforts appear to events too.
be paying off. Of Valeo's top 300 executives, now 11 percent
are women.
"If we really want to walk the walk, we
have to say we want more women and
mean it," Colpron said.
In 2012, Lear Corp. launched a female
employee support group called Growth
Resources and Opportunities for Women,
or GROW. In the fall of 2013 the group began sponsoring a speaker series, starting
with Mary Barra just six weeks before she
was named the CEO of GM.
Men are invited to GROW events, too.
"It's just as important that men see
these speakers as women," said Jeneanne Hanley, vice president for global

W O M E N
trim and craftsmanship at the supplier.
In June, 125 GM employees from
around the world attended the first GM
Global Women's Leadership Summit in
Detroit. The discussion centered on ways
to elevate GM as a "premier destination
for women and to continually build an inclusive" culture, said Marina Shoemaker,
director of global diversity for GM.
GM now has 18 women's councils
around the world that provide networking and developmental support to
salaried female workers, and to help find
and nurture talent.
In the U.S., the council - known as GM
W.O.M.E.N (women offering mentoring,
expertise and networking) - has about
2,300 members, Shoemaker said.

The right tone
GM also partners with organizations
such as the Society of Women Engineers,
Global Summit of Women and Women of
Color to build a pipeline of female talent.
And the company is investing in science, technology, engineering and math,
or STEM, education to encourage women
to pursue careers in those fields. The GM
Foundation grants Buick Achiever Scholarships to graduating high school students and college undergraduates. This
year, 56 percent of the scholarships went
to female students, Shoemaker said.
Felicia Fields, Ford's group vice president for human resources and corporate
services, says the company aggressively
recruits women and minorities on college
campuses, and provides mentoring and
scholarships for girls as early as middle
school age.
To retain female talent, Ford in the late
1980s set up the Professional Women's
Network, a global group with chapters organized by region and by specific disciplines, such as finance and information
technology.

●●●
Ford also participates in programs such
as Menttium, an external mentorship
program that Fields says provides "a safe
environment to talk about what's going
on inside of Ford."
Just less than half of Ally Financial's
6,900 employees are women. To help the
company retain them, a Women's Leadership Network was established in 2011.
The group conducts regional forums at
which women discuss business issues and
have opportunities to build alliances with
other women. At an event this year in Jacksonville, Fla., for example, more than 400
women from the area met to review Ally's
product development and strategy. The
event concluded with a question-and-answer session offering career advice.
The Women's Leadership Network also
encourages Ally's female managers to actively search for talent.
"We have really tapped our high-potential females and leveraged them to be our
recruiters," said Kathleen Patterson, senior
vice president of human resources. "They
support us to identify talent in the marketplace. And women hear that Ally's a great
place to work with flexible working schedules and women friendly, mother friendly."

Barriers or excuses
Susan Scarola, former vice chairman of
DCH Auto Group, a large auto dealership
group that was acquired by Lithia Motors
Inc., spent three decades working her way
up the ladder in retailing. She blames the
industry's struggle to attract and retain
women on companies that allow an outdated perception to thrive.
"This industry can pay a very decent
wage. If my perception was that the industry was welcoming, why would I not look at
that?" Scarola says. "It's not about the
hours. There are many other industries with
odd hours. We tell ourselves there are barriers, but that's just excuses for not acting."

To be named as one of the top 100 leading women in automotive is quite an accomplishment. To have two within
our own ranks is even more remarkable. So it is with great pride that we congratulate both Michele
Lieber and Andrea Riley on this prestigious recognition. Their professional passion, commitment and
brilliance inspire us daily and we're fortunate to have them leading the way.
©2015 Ally Financial. All rights reserved. Driven by what we love is a service mark of Ally Financial.

Scarola says manufacturers should help
dealers understand the economic benefits of a diverse work force by researching
those benefits. She says automakers also
should help dealers find companies that
offer mentors to their female employees.
In some dealerships, Scarola says, managers still permit hostile work environments.
"As a woman I wouldn't want to put myself in an environment where the boys being
boys is tolerated," she says. "At least if I'm
going to work odd hours, I'll do it at Neiman
Marcus, where I know it's a well-run, ethical
and professional environment."
At the Faulkner Organization, a large
dealership group in central and southeast
Pennsylvania, 24 percent of the 1,450 fulland part-time employees are women. But
only 4 percent of them are managers, says
Dina Perreault, head of human resources.
Perreault says the company, which
owns 23 dealerships with 16 brands, is
working to change that. She says two fulltime recruiters are focused intently on
hiring female managers.
Four years ago, the company began
promoting women from accounting jobs
to finance and insurance and Internet
sales positions. Two years ago, Faulkner
started paying for female body shop receptionists to complete training to become licensed estimators.
"We're trying to figure out if we have
good and talented people, where can we
deploy them to work someplace else [in
the company] that helps them grow," Perreault says. "We're starting to look at our
entire work force differently."
Such efforts are essential.
"We're growing at such a rapid pace,"
she says, "we'd be losing an enormous
talent pool if we don't start to move people into creative roles." c
Nick Bunkley contributed to this report.

Automotive News - November 9, 2015 - Supplement

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