Leading Women - 67W

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francoise

You've been in the industry 22 years.
What has been the most important
change you've seen? The most surprising
thing is, around 2015, seeing how the West
Coast tech world and the Rust Belt came
together. The alliances. And how we can
each learn from each other.
What work achievement are you most
proud of? I am very proud of the team I
have built and its diversity. Today, on my
immediate team, we are 50 percent women and we have six different nationalities. I
come from a very diverse background myself. I am half Canadian, half Peruvian and
American by marriage and I have lived and
worked across the world. I think all of those
experiences have allowed me to really create and lead a diverse team and really pull
on the strength of diversity, not just to
check a box. It's really because I am convinced that a difference of opinion can lead
to more creativity and a better-performing
team, and I am very proud of them.
What do you struggle with? In terms of
work-life balance it is constant juggling.
Now our daughter is older. But I think over
the years, we found not so much work-life
balance but work-life integration. The most

difficult thing is to control your schedule.
You need to learn to be very present and
available to your family and your loved
ones, otherwise you tend to be completely
absorbed by your work.
Describe your leadership style. I have a
very inclusive and open leadership style. I
tend to trust and delegate until someone
disappoints me, then I get involved. But my
first reaction is I trust people. And really
encourage a difference of opinion. I won't
take offense if someone disagrees with me.
I think that's how you learn from each other, and that leads to progress. I think if you
ask my team, they will say I can be a little
impatient, but I am working on that.
What have you learned from the
COVID-19 crisis? It was amazing to see
how the industry came together. I think
people forgot about their differences, who
was a customer, supplier or even a competitor. Under the leadership of OESA (the
Original Equipment Suppliers Association), we all came together to improve the
health and safety protocols and share best
practices. I think sometimes a crisis can
make you forget about the day-to-day roles
and make you have a higher calling. The industry came together on this one.
What should be done to encourage
women to enter the auto industry? First
of all, I commend Automotive News for an
event like this. You really need to project yourself so other people can have role models. As
an industry, we need to work with girls early
on to encourage them to study STEM and to
take more risks. Once they enter the industry,
we need to encourage them to take risks and
P&L positions. Also, networks are very important. In 2012, I launched Valeo Women
Connected. It is a very active global network
that organized events for men and women
and I believe it is about gender diversity. It is
about how to better work together, men and
women. We could promote a more inclusive
automotive industry, not just for women, but
for all minorities.
- Richard Truett

nothing like I imagined. I had to learn a lot
when I got there, how to do business, how
to work with my colleagues there. I think it
changed me fundamentally as a person,
made me much more open-minded and
less stressed about challenges.
You've been in the industry 18 years.
What has been the most important
change you've seen? The rise of the Chinese market. It gives us a pipeline of different talent. We recently completed our global
talent review. Ten years ago, you would never see an Asian candidate with high potential in the succession planning. This year I
was very happy to see several colleagues
across the business units, from India, Japan
and China, being considered for global roles.
That's certainly a very good change for the
auto industry. On the reverse side, I am very
nervous about how to recruit young talent
into the auto industry. They want to go work
at Google. I have lost engineers, not to competitors but to completely different industries. We need to start thinking about how
we are going to bring young talent into the
industry and keep them here.
What do you struggle with? Automotive is going through a transition period
and there is a lot of question of what will be
the future technology, how much do we
continue to invest on the internal combus-

tion engine. Tenneco as a business is very
focused on internal combustion engines.
What I struggle with is that here is a perception that the internal combustion engine is not the way going forward. There's a
lot of excitement toward electrification,
and it's understandable, but it distracts
from some of the resources and attention
that we should be placing on the core traditional powertrain technologies.
Describe your leadership style. I am
more a collaborator. I like to use the Socratic method. I ask a lot of questions. Everyone on my team, they are experts in their
function. I am more of a generalist. It is my
way to learn and to get people thinking.
What should be done to encourage
women to enter the auto industry? There
are a lot of women still interested in coming to the auto industry. A lot of my hires in
sales and engineering are talented women.
I think the question is how do you retain
women in the auto industry? I don't think
anyone would argue that automotive is a
conservative industry, and we have many
conservative practices in terms of HR policies. Maybe, to retain this young talent, we
have think about how we modernize some
of these policies. Tenneco is starting to
look into this area, especially for women
who have children and need more flex
time. I see a pipeline of women coming in,
but they tend to leave earlier than their
male counterparts.
Tell us about your family. My family is
very global. I was born in Taiwan and my
whole family moved to Vancouver, Canada, where I grew up. My parents are still in
Vancouver. I have one sister and her husband living in Taiwan and another sister
and her husband living close to London.
Once a year, we get together and do a big
trip. Unfortunately, we can't meet this year.
What's your favorite weekend activity?
I like sports. I picked up tennis about a year
ago and I have been in boxing for 3½ years.
- Richard Truett

COLPRON

 Group President | Valeo North
America | Troy, Mich. | Age: 50 |
Education: Human science diploma,
College Edouard-Montpetit; civil law
degree, University of Montreal
What drew you to the auto industry? I
joined Valeo in 1998 in the legal department, so at first it was more the quality of
the job more than the industry itself. But
over the years, I rose in the company and
moved to the U.S. in 2003. And then I was
appointed to my current position in 2008.
As you can imagine, both the industry and
Valeo changed tremendously. We like to
refer to ourselves as a tech company, certainly a leader in electrification and autonomous driving. For me, it's very exciting to
be part of the transformation and the future of mobility.
First automotive job: I had global responsibility for all the files for the thermal
branch; I was responsible for all the legal
files, from commercial, to terms and conditions, to litigation. That was in Paris in 1998.
Big break: For sure it was transitioning in
2008 from a legal role to my present one. It
was an interesting challenge to go from legal to a general management position with
consolidated P&L responsibility in a world
of engineers in a downturn. I could not
have done it without an outstanding team.
What is the major challenge you've
faced in your career? The crisis that we are
living through now, COVID. I was appointed
during the financial crisis, but even during
the downturn we didn't have to completely
stop production. So, our first priority has
been the health and safety of our team and
their families, and, of course, the continuity
of the business. I am convinced that we will
all emerge from this much stronger, not just
at Valeo, but as an industry.

christina TSAI

 Vice President and General
Manager, Global Sealing | Tenneco |
Southfield, Mich. | Age: 40 | Education:
B.A., economics, B.S., engineering,
and M.S., biotechnology, University of
Pennsylvania
What drew you to the auto industry? I
have to admit it was kind of an accident.
My major was in chemical engineering. At
that time chemical engineers were going to
pharmaceutical and biochemical companies. My area of interest was more in the
area of petroleum chemicals. At the time I
joined Federal Mogul, they made a lot of
fabric and textile-based products for wiring, and they were developing an application to go into biomedical devices and I
thought it would be a good fit. I interviewed with a lot of companies, but this
was the only one that took the time. I spent
2½ days getting to know the company. And
I thought if a company is willing to invest
that kind of time getting to know a recruit,
they will make sure I succeed in any career
I will have with the company.
First automotive job: In 2002, I was an
R&D engineer in the test lab working on
validation of materials, products and test
methods.
Big break: When I was asked to go to
China to run the sales office. I was 27 and I
had no sales experience. I was considered
because I know the language, I know the
culture and I know the product. The company was very focused on developing talent and so they took a chance on me. It was
very rough, but it gave me a foundation
within Tenneco to develop my career.
What is the major challenge you've
faced in your career? Learning how to do
business in China. I had my own assumptions on what the Chinese culture and
business environment would be and it was

NOVEMBER 9, 2020 * 67W

lisa DRAKE

 COO, North America | Ford Motor Co. | Dearborn,
Mich. | Age: 48 | Education: B.S., mechanical
engineering, Carnegie Mellon University; MBA,
University of Michigan
What drew you to the auto industry? It was my visit
after I interviewed on campus with a Ford recruiter. I was
really excited. I hadn't flown much, so this was a big deal.
I grew up in Pittsburgh, so I was used to manufacturing
with the steel industry; my dad worked in a steel mill. I
pictured the auto industry sort of like that. I had never
worked in my college years; I had always done campus
research. I never did internships. So I never worked for a
company. I thought a company was a building; like, you'd
go, park and walk in. I landed at Detroit Metro and I was
in a cab to the Dearborn Inn. The first thing I remember is
that huge tire on I-94. Something about it just said, "This
is the hub of automotive. You have arrived." I remember
taking pictures with a camera, because it was before cellphones, because I wanted to show my family. I stayed at
the Dearborn Inn and when I was driving down Michigan Avenue, every building had a Ford oval on it. I
couldn't believe it. I did some walking around the campus and it was like a little village. I realized there was this
immediate sense of community. I was going to go work in
a community, not a company. I did interview at other
companies; that experience was strikingly different than
the one I had when I came to Dearborn. I was not predispositioned to the auto industry. I had colleagues at Carnegie Mellon who would take the internal-combustion
class. I had no interest, although my uncle raced cars and
my dad and my brother always tinkered with cars. I was a
bit nervous about picking Ford. But the minute I started, I
fell in love with it and I've never had a reason to leave.
First automotive job: I started June 20, 1994, as a powertrain engineer.
Big break: The first was when I moved into electrification [in 2007]. I was horrified. I didn't know the first thing
about batteries. When I got over there, I became chief engineer of all the plug-in hybrids and battery-electrics. I
remember the first meeting, the team was teaching me
all the technology. I went home and had to pull out my
books from school and follow these guys, but then I realized, I'm not going to be able to keep up this way. There's
another reason I'm here. I realized they had the best
technology, but they weren't good at putting it into a
product program and selling it to the company. That's
what I was good at. We ended up putting multiple vehicles in the cycle program. That's when I realized what my
value was. The second time was when I moved from purchasing to product development. That was not the norm.
I had been in PD for 20 years and moved to purchasing
and boy, it really accelerated my career.
What is the major challenge you've faced in your career? My biggest challenge today is giving more women
the same great experience Ford was able to give me. I'm
one of the fortunate ones who persevered and got to
where I am. But for every one of me there's 100 women
that are opting out or aren't getting the right opportunities or don't have a great mentor.
You've been in the industry 26 years. What has been
the most important change you've seen? I love the advancement of electrification. I was part of it back when it
wasn't very popular. Now it's at the forefront. Between
EVs and our AV future, I love Bill Ford's TED Talk from
2011 where he talked about the correlation of mobility
solutions breaking the barriers of poverty in cities. When
we can unlock that, those bigger visions he has are what I
love about the change at Ford. That's the best transformation I've seen, this tangible commitment to doing things
better for the world.
What's your favorite weekend activity? Right now it's
pickleball. I love to kickbox, but we just picked up playing
pickleball.
What's the best book you've read in the last year,
and what did you get out of it? She Said: Breaking the
Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement.
It was inspiring to see those women reporters and how
strong they had to build the case to go and have the conversation with [Harvey] Weinstein and his organization,
or even [The New York Times].
- Michael Martinez

Leading Women

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