Leading Women - 44W

44W * NOVEMBER 9, 2020

10 0 L E A D I N G W O M E N

kimberly

RODRIGUEZ

 CEO | Dura Automotive Systems
| Auburn Hills, Mich. | Age: 59 |
Education: B.A., economics, Michigan
State University; M.S., finance, Walsh
College
What drew you to the auto industry? I
started my career in Michigan. Working as
a loan officer, I thought I was going to go
into banking. I got the opportunity to be
on-site at manufacturing plants. Had never done that before. I like the logic of manufacturing. I like the impact that you can
have on the plant floor. But I had a finance
degree, so restructuring was a way to be
able to combine both of those things.
First automotive job: I worked in consulting on the restructuring side of things.
So I've worked in automotive my entire
life. I hadn't worked directly for an automotive company until the last couple of
years when I worked with Rush Trucking.
But I've been working for and on behalf of
automotive companies.
Big break: My career was more of a series of opportunities versus one big break.
Those opportunities have continued
throughout my career. It started at a restructuring firm that I was at. It was poorly
managed, eventually went out of business.
I decided to leave that firm. As I left, the clients that I had serviced at that firm came
to me and said, "We would rather work
with you directly." I ended up being busy
enough I had to hire other people and
started my own practice as a result. I'd like
to say it was part of a grand plan but it was
taking advantage of an opportunity.
What is the major challenge you've
faced in your career? The challenge of
starting young on your own is that you don't

have the opportunity to follow mentors like
you would inside a large firm. So, for people
whom I learned from, I had to look outside
my own firm. I even learned from competitors. In automotive, agility is huge. There are
curveballs thrown at you at every turn. It's a
cyclical industry, it's a pretty aggressive industry. So, that ability to problem-solve and
remain agile is as important.
You've been in the industry 34 years.
What has been the most important
change you've seen? One of the exciting
changes in automotive has come with
electric vehicles. It has added a technology
element. You can see that by the people
Apple hires away from the automotive
companies. Now, with the emergence of
autonomous and electric vehicles, it's
clear to a broader scope of individuals how
technologically advanced automotive is. It
adds a new level of complexity. And it adds
some excitement to a generation that is all
about technology. That's one of the things
that brought me to Dura Automotive. It's a
completely different product cadence,
product cycle. The items in the car that are
more important are very different.
What work achievement are you most
proud of? Being able to exist in an industry
that's difficult for women. I was told when
I started in my career that not only could I

andrea

BRIMMER

 Chief Marketing and Public
Relations Officer | Ally Financial
| Detroit | Age: 55 | Education: B.A.,
advertising, Michigan State University
What drew you to the auto industry?
I've always been fascinated by automotive
advertising. Historically, automotive advertising has been some of the most formative and important marketing done.
Think about a brand like Chevrolet, for instance: "See the USA in Your Chevrolet"
and "Like a Rock" and "Heartbeat of
America," "American Revolution." These
were campaigns that shaped what that
brand was all about.
First automotive job: In 1987, I worked
at Campbell Ewald advertising.
Big break: My biggest break was when
[Ally CEO Jeff Brown] made me CMO at Ally. My first assignment was as brand executive right when GM had spun us off as
GMAC. That was an awesome opportunity. Create the name, create the logo, create
the go-to-market strategy. Hire an agency.
Figure out how to create a cohesive culture. I really felt like the DNA of the brand
was truly in my hands.
What is the major challenge you've
faced in your career? Battling the guilt
that all working moms carry. The desire to
have a career that is meaningful and is ignited, with the draw to want to be there
and all the moments that matter for my
kids.
You've been in the industry 33 years.
What has been the most important
change you've seen? The realization and
integration of strong women in key positions within the automotive industry. Having a woman as a CEO or having a woman
as a CFO, those were things that were unheard of even until the late '90s. That's
been an important change. And the next is

a real focus on people of color.
What work achievement are you most
proud of? The rebranding of Ally. It's a
mark I will always have left on the business
world. We created a company.
Describe your leadership style. When I
was on the agency side, I had an evaluation, and my boss knocked me. He said,
"You're spending too much time with the
little people. You spend all this time with
the younger people that are way, way below your level, and you need to elevate
yourself and realize that you're no longer
one of them." It stuck with me forever. I was
so bothered by it. To this day, I make sure I
go to lunch, spend time. There's such important perspective that comes from every
level. What I'm dealing with every single
day is totally different than what the most
junior member of the team is dealing with
every single day. I can't solve for those
things if I'm not close to [them].
What have you learned from the
COVID-19 crisis? Essentialism. We're
stripping away a lot of things that aren't

not compete as the owner of a restructuring firm as a woman, but not as a woman
with children. That's a restriction that is
unnecessary. My kids seem to have turned
out pretty well. You can be a woman, you
can have children and you can compete in
this industry effectively.
Describe your leadership style. Encouraging people to bring problems to the
table and to solve those problems. A lot of
times problems are kind of shoved under a
rug, or not brought up to a CEO level. I try
to make it very clear throughout the culture that the only way for us to solve problems is to identify them. The only problems that are unacceptable are those that
are a surprise.
What should be done to encourage
women to enter the auto industry? The
biggest thing is to instill self-confidence. In
automotive, it doesn't matter what sex you
are, it doesn't even matter how smart you
are, it depends on how effective you are. To
be effective, you have to be in the game
and you have to stay in the game for a period of time. If you don't do that, then you
can't build that track record, you can't
prove effectiveness and you can't move
forward. I had a football coach as a father.
So I grew up with a coach's mentality -
which is there are no limitations. Just get it
done. Just try harder. It's really difficult to
have that self-confidence if you don't see
anyone that looks like you - sex, race, ethnicity. If you can see people that look like
you, then that helps to instill that confidence to continue to move forward.
What's your favorite weekend activity?
Tennis. It's a great social activity. You get
out, and in a relatively short period of time,
you get some exercise. It's something that
you can play for your entire life to stay active. And it's competitive. I like physical
activity. I like being outside. It's probably
the farm girl part of me.

- Urvaksh Karkaria

important by cutting a lot of the lengthy
process that just can't exist during COVID
because you're not all in the same building
together. That's helped us with speed to
market and making decisions more quickly. We made a decision on the forbearance
packages that we introduced at the beginning of COVID in a day. If we were all in the
office, it probably would have taken us a
month.
What should be done to encourage
women to enter the auto industry? We
have to get to the parents. I know a lot of
people, for instance, where I've even suggested, "Why doesn't your son or daughter
become a salesperson at a dealership?"
[They say,] "I'd never let my kid go to college for four years and then sell cars." Well,
why? That car salesman perception that
exists is not fully accurate. It is the most
complex small business that exists. I don't
think people realize everything that goes
into it or how fruitful or how meaningful of
a role it can be. There are stereotypical
views of the industry that we as an industry
have done a bad job of reversing.
How do you bring your best self to
work? I've gone through some really hard
things in my life. When I was going through
my divorce, my brother was also very ill
and dying. I was financially very strapped
because I was paying child support and alimony. I was 40 years old, and I was in my
parents' basement getting pots and pans
and plates from them because I was starting a new household. That was heavy for
me. I did find a great therapist who I talked
to. My best friend, who happens to be our
chief human resource officer, I can talk
with her about anything. Then, of course,
there's always a boat ride and a good bottle
of wine. I realized that you have to compartmentalize to the greatest extent that
you possibly can. I don't think that it's fair
that people in my work environment have
to deal with the things that I'm dealing
with [at home].

- Jackie Charniga

christine SITEK

 Executive Director, Global Purchasing & Supply
Chain | General Motors | Detroit | Age: 54 |
Education: B.A., materials management, Michigan
State University; MBA, University of Detroit Mercy
What drew you to the auto industry? A lot of it was
proximity and family. When you grow up in this area of
Michigan, it's hard to have a family that wasn't supported
by the automotive industry. My grandfather retired from
Fisher Body at General Motors. My uncle had a 30-year
career with the union leadership at GM. My dad worked in
the supply industry for the automotive industry. I was just
surrounded by it. The broad industry supported all these
families in such a positive way. When I graduated from
school, I think the joint market share between Ford and
GM was exceeding 50 percent. To get a job at the Big 3 was
the place to be. The perception was that you could take
care of your family for your entire career and that it would
serve you well.
First automotive job: I hired into GM officially out of
college in 1989, and I worked in material control. I actually was chasing parts to assure operation at our bus plant.
Yes, we used to make buses. We would make two a day out
of a plant in Pontiac.
Big break: I'm not an engineer, and aside from a material control position at a plant for a while, I didn't have any
type of long-term plant assignments. I spent the first 21
years of my career working in global supply chain purchasing-type roles. And I was given an opportunity after that to
go take a leadership position in manufacturing-engineering. It was completely unheard of at the time to take a business degree person without the depth and manufacturing
and engineering to go into that organization. It was like I
left the company. It was a huge test of adaptability and
learning agility. I think
that position and what
it created completely
changed the trajectory
of the balance of my
career, probably for the
last 10 or 12 years.
What is the major
challenge you've faced
in your career? I've had
more opportunities in
these 32 years than I've
had challenges. The
handful of times that I
found myself in a specific challenge, I actually think it's because I didn't believe
in myself enough. As you progress in your career with maturity, that happens a little bit less. I found it was really important to have trusted advisers who would shake me a
little bit and say, "Get back in the ring. That's not you.
That's not how you should be feeling about it."
You've been in the industry 32 years. What has been
the most important change you've seen? It's probably
difficult to ask that question without thinking about electric vehicles and the tipping point that's happening now in
the industry and the massive number of competitors that
it's bringing to industry globally. It's forcing all OEMs to
partner and/or lean in very heavily with where they're
making investments. I think EVs are really going to be the
one that transforms the industry the most.
Describe your leadership style. Approachable. I learned
over the years that if leaders don't have an environment
where people tell them stuff, then bad news doesn't get delivered. Good news doesn't get shared. People don't ask for
help. It goes well beyond having an open-door policy. You
have to have the open door, but then people have to be willing
to walk through it.
Tell us about your family. I am married to my high
school sweetheart. He actually planned my 16th birthday
party. That's how long we've known each other. We have
two children. All four of us work at GM. My husband works
in the engineering organization. My daughter actually
works in purchasing as well. She's a buyer in the organization. And my son just started in the finance organization in
June. We joke that we have the Shelby Township, Mich.,
GM Tech Center with all of the functions represented.
Are you able to achieve work-life balance? When people started saying it was work-life integration, I felt less
guilty about it. I think when you talk about balance, do
you start to think everything needs to be 50-50 all the
time? And that's really not true. If you look at it in too short
term of a view, you could feel off balance because there's
one day I'm going to give more to my family than I do to
my professional life. But then the next day, I'm likely going
to give more to my professional life. Everybody assumes
that I missed something really big or I had to give something up, and I never really did. I look back on my kids
growing up, and there is nothing that I feel like I missed
out on. So I think that would tell you that I found that balance somehow. But it's not without a lot of support.
- Hannah Lutz

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