Back in the day, Joe Ziomek would often bring his young daughter along when he attended professional industry meetings such as SAE meetings and functions at Ford Motor Company.
Eventually, his daughter would notice the lack of female representation at these meetings, and she asked him once, as a young daughter might, “Where are all the girls?”
“He told me, ‘That’s why I’m bringing you here,’” Kim Ziomek recalled recently. “’I need you to see where you can make a difference.’”
She has done that, having co-founded what is now the Automotive Women’s Alliance Foundation, a non-profit organization committed to empowering women in the automotive and related mobility industries.
Even at 86 years old, the elder Ziomek still gets credit for the success of the daughter.
“He’s a phenomenal mentor,” said Kim, now AWAF’s president emerita. “As I grew and matured, it was interesting to see the need for promoting diversity into the workplace.”
The latest show of that diversity came Saturday with AWAF’s “Ignite Your Genius: Thriving Through Change” event. The day-long summit held at Magna International in Troy, featured panel discussions and an interactive session designed to promote women in the industry.
One panel discussion centered on leading through disruption and cultivating an adaptive mindset, and featured industry leaders from companies represented around the country, including:
- Tony Pistagnesi, Executive Director – Innovation and Business Development, American Axle
- Christine Thelesklaf, Vice President, Regional Business Unit Leader Power Solutions – Software & Controls, Bosch
- Niran Audimoolam, Vice President of Global Quality, Autoliv America – Americas
- Kristine Shapiro, Vice President, North America Business Owners, Lear Corporation
The talk was moderated by Anne Partington, Managing Director & Industry Partnerships, Tauber Institute for Global Operations, Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan.
“We’re living through a really disruptive time right now,” Partington said. “Adaptive leadership is about guiding growth, not by imposing direction, but really facilitating an environment where people can thrive and grow.
“We’ve always had change management, we’ve always had to adapt, but we’re doing that at a much faster pace and it’s constant,” she added. “So when we think about how do we move our teams forward, move our initiatives forward, move our strategies forward, we have to think about things such as how do we incorporate emotional intelligence to create safe spaces? How do we allow for inclusive decision making? So adaptive leadership is about how do we really promote the growth and the moving forward of ourselves, our teams, and our organizations while living through this time of tremendous change.”
Partington echoed the thoughts of some of the event’s speakers, citing geopolitical upheaval and questions surrounding U.S. policy on tariffs as part of the cause of the disruption, particularly in the auto industry.
That kind of disruption, she said, can make finding talent in that industry more problematic.
“I think we can be very mindful of the fact that we desperately need talent in this space,” Partington said. “We have some of the largest investments since World War II coming into onshoring in the country. And if we want to have a workforce that’s ready and willing, we need to make sure they understand that they’re part of that journey moving forward.
“So I prefer to look at it as that transparency will help our current and future leaders stay in the industry, be retained in the industry, and help make impactful decisions that will allow for the longevity and sustainability of this important industry,” she added.
Carolyn Sauer, who handles business development and marketing for Schaltbau North America, a wholly owned subsidiary of Schaltbau GmbH that was established in 2001 to support the North American customer base for products including contactors, snap-action switches, connectors, control devices and high-voltage equipment for railway applications, said she “really likes” the organization’s mission of helping develop and promote women across their career path.
“To be able to help some of these amazing and inspiring students that we’re helping to be able to fulfill their passion and their dreams is really exciting,” Sauer said. “I was hoping to get some inspiration, which I did. We’ve had some really great conversations. People are open and candid and (shared) really relatable stories and helpful advice on how we can keep navigating change in this … industry. Hearing those insights is really helpful.”
That’s the basic goal of the organization, according to Ziomek, who should know, having founded the group with Molly Pettini and Fran Bachman three decades ago. The group has a membership, a board of directors and an executive committee Ziomek says is “passionate and compassionate.”
The group does surveys. They look provide access to speakers that would not normally be accessible, and the opportunity to “meet and greet other women that I don’t know who they are in the industry, and give me the opportunity to have support I need in my career journey.
“I’m very grateful for the past 30-plus years — more than that — that I have watched teams of boards of directors and executive advisors come in and understand the mission, the vision, the goals and the objectives and align with that for success.”
