Automotive News Canada - December 2019 - 17

* D E C E M B E R 2019

2019

AUTOMOTIVE NEWS CANADA

ALL STARS

IN THE NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE,

All Stars are outstanding players selected and
named to special teams.
Canada's automotive industry also has its
All Stars and, in this issue, the editors of Automotive
News Canada present their selection of key players.
The 2019 All Stars come from all walks of industry
and have made significant contributions in their
respective fields. Some have turned around sales
within their companies or have striven for workplace
gender equality, while others are leading the autonomous-vehicles technology charge in this country.
Leaders who are innovative, creative and
dedicated are essential to the prosperity and
success of any business, and the 2019 All Stars
have demonstrated an ability to rise above everyday
challenges to make excellence the benchmark.
For this team, it's a job well done.
Exceptionally well done.

DEALER RELATIONS

STEVE MILETTE
CEO, NISSAN CANADA

anada's 210 Nissan dealers are applauding Steve Milette's move to repair relations
Cbetween
them and the manufacturer, hailing a

decision to step away from the company's controversial stair-step sales-incentive program.
Dealers complained the program was overly
aggressive, forcing them to trade profit for sales
through steep discounts to reach the targets.
The practice was the brainchild of former global
CEO Carlos Ghosn.
"Our intent is to attract and retain the best
dealers that are out there in the Canadian industry," he said in August. "If we need to tweak any
programs that we have, then we will."
Milette, 47, is also pulling Nissan away from fleet
sales, "which don't support brand value." While the
move means some short-term pain - sales fell 8.6 per
cent in the first 11 months of 2019 - it would result in
increased residual values, strengthen the Nissan brand
and boost dealer profitability, he said.

BIG-PICTURE PROPONENT

TURNAROUND ARTIST

FORMER CHAIR, CANADIAN ASSOCIATION
OF MOLD MAKERS

PRESIDENT, AUTOCANADA INC.

JONATHON
AZZOPARDI

MICHAEL
RAWLUK

n summer 2018, Michael Rawluk, the former chief operating officer of Winnipeg's
IBirchwood
Automotive Group, was hired

ith Canada's automotive manufacturing in
decline - GM is shuttering Oshawa Assembly
and Ford is scaling down operations in Oakville,
Ont., after discontinuing the Flex wagon - someone
had to take charge and lead Canada's parts industry
in a new direction.
In 2019, that person was Jonathon Azzopardi,
who until his term ended in September led the
Canadian Association of Mold Makers and is owner
of Windsor, Ont., parts maker Laval Tool. He is at
the forefront of a push to get his fellow parts suppliers to look to India, which is currently the world's
fourth-largest automotive market, but is poised to
take the No. 3 position by 2021, and has a target of
building seven million cars a year.
Azzopardi, 40, says that means opportunity.
India has an "aggressive" target of building seven
million vehicles per year. "They're big numbers.
They have the population and they're building the
middle class," he said.

HUMAN RESOURCES

LYDIA BOWSER
SENIOR HUMAN RESOURCES
MANAGER, HYUNDAI CANADA

yundai Canada earned the distinction in
2019 as the only automaker named one
H
of Canada's top 50 workplaces for women.

Leading that charge is Lydia Bowser, 36, who
credits company leadership with providing the
flexibility and opportunities women need to
succeed.
"We've had a huge culture shift over the
last five years." Flexible Fridays - where staff
can work an extra 30 minutes from Monday
to Thursday in order to leave two hours early
on Friday - maternity leave and a constant
search for opportunities to "encourage diversity and inclusivity" across the company all
contributed to the honour from Great Place
to Work, a global surveying, assessment and
indexing organization.
"We implemented maternity leave... we
want women to know they can have a great
career with us and start their families with us,
and that's not going to inhibit their growth."

by a bleeding AutoCanada as part of
sweeping changes designed to turn around
the dealership group.
According to Paul Antony, chairman
of AutoCanada, Rawluk, 45, has systematically deconstructed and rebuilt the
company around boosting used-car sales,
increasing turnaround in service departments and boosting new-vehicle sales, and
not at the expense of profitability.
The moves boosted Canadian net
income for the 2019 third quarter to $10.7
million, which helped the company cut
overall losses to $4.1 million from $15 million in the same quarter in 2018.
"We're basically taking everything
back to ground zero and starting to
rebuild an organization, and that comes
with new cost structure, new team, new
culture. It's exactly kind of what Michael's
been doing," Antony said on a third-quarter earnings call with investors.

Automotive News Canada - December 2019

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