From the editor: Women continue to fill prominent automotive executive roles, which is awesome

In all probability not numerous people today would dispute the place that Cox Automotive has vast of quantity of methods. Everyone who walked by way of the expo corridor at NADA Demonstrate 2022 could pretty much see that with their individual eyes.

As a end result of all those means, we listed here at Cherokee Media Team get various messages regularly from the Cox Automotive family members regardless of whether it is the newest figures involving certified pre-owned revenue, wholesale prices or credit history availability.

When another of these messages arrived late this 7 days, a part of it straight away caught my focus. The information launch announced that Cox Automotive Retail Methods designed several vital adjustments to its leadership team.

And all 5 executives pointed out in the announcement have been girls.

To mimic longtime sporting activities broadcaster Tim Brando, “How about that?!”

In accordance to that information release, Cox Automotive Retail Alternatives president Lori Wittman said amid the modifications, Mandi Fang became the new senior vice president of client functions and Tracy Noonan Fred became the new senior vice president of supplier options. The two will now report immediately to Wittman.

Becoming a member of Wittman’s team is Cheryl Miller, who will go on in her role as vice president of financial institution remedies. Jessica Stafford proceeds to report to Wittman in her job as SVP of customer solutions but will now lead the merged customer promoting power of Supplier.com, Autotrader, and Kelley Blue Book within just Cox Automotive’s Retail team.

“With these promotions and alignments, Cox Automotive Retail Methods is poised to lead our clientele confidently into this new period of automotive retailing,” Wittman said in the news release. “This management team’s practical experience, perseverance, and passion will gas the transformation of the automotive business and generate larger achievements for our consumers and partners.”

Absolutely, this new era of automotive retailing incorporates the know-how these 5 women oversee for Cox Automotive. But it’s also a new period for what it’s like at the very least at dealerships. In several stores, long long gone are the stereotypes in the spotlight of these vendor commercials from a 10 years in the past in which the advert hook was “Tired of acquiring badgered?”

In just one of the spots, the badger — characterised to be a chauvinistic male salesperson down to the plaid sport coat — quips to the probable customer who was feminine, “there’s the rearview mirror where by you can set on your makeup!”

Ahead-thinking dealerships and large organizations this kind of as Cox Automotive certainly are not the only business retailers lifting women to their perfectly-deserved location in management. Celebrating that progress is section of the motive why we Cherokee Media Team designed some of the awards programs we have orchestrated for lots of years now. They involve Women of all ages in Remarketing, Females in Retail, Girls in Auto Finance and new this year, Gals in Collections and Recoveries.

All the latest honorees will be celebrated during Employed Vehicle Week, which starts Nov. 14 in San Diego. Maybe you can make the excursion to beautiful southern California through the week ahead of Thanksgiving to fulfill them in human being and hear their stories about how they flourished to their respective positions.

In that most current news launch from Cox Automotive, what Wittman reported about her govt crew rings accurate about a host of ladies in automotive management right now.

“These women of all ages were being purposefully selected for their progressive concepts and inclusive means of motivating their groups to accomplish ambitions, streamline procedures and leverage engineering to build a dependable, seamless customer knowledge,” Wittman reported.

Nick Zulovich is senior editor with Cherokee Media Team and can be reached at [email protected].