Winners 2024

Executive 2024

Lisa Brankin was promoted to UK chairperson of Ford’s national sales company in August 2023 in addition to her existing responsibilities as managing director of Ford of Britain and Ireland, a role she took on in November 2020. Her posting to the top position in this key Ford market – its largest in Europe – came after 24 successful years of rising through the brand’s ranks.

Originally from Northern Ireland, Brankin joined Ford as a graduate trainee in 1990 after studying at the University of Ulster. She quickly moved into senior positions, including director of dealer operations, marketing manager for dealers and consumers, and communications, events and sponsorship manager.

In more recent years, Brankin was promoted to marketing director, sales director and, in 2019, director of passenger cars, overseeing Ford’s sales and marketing. She has overseen Ford’s shift from its traditional market-leading position in passenger cars to one focused more on light commercial vehicles, where Ford remains number one.

Executive 2024 nominees

Jane Pocock, Copart

Jane Pocock leads the UK arm of this US-based company that specialises in vehicle remarketing and recycling. Pocock oversees a staff of circa 1700 across 27 locations in the second longest established division within the global company Copart Inc and reports to the CEO Jeff Liaw. Jane joined the company from online LCV leasing firm Vans Direct, which she took from a start-up in 2009 to its sale in 2019 to Vertu for £7.5 million. Prior to that, she spent 17 years with the AA.

Barbara Bergmeier, JLR

Barbara Bergmeier is one of two women on the JLR board, reporting to CEO Adrian Mardell, and the only one with an executive position. She joined JLR in July 2022 overseeing industrial operations including manufacturing, purchasing and supply chain. Barbara joined JLR from Airbus Defence and Space, where she was executive VP and head of operations. Prior to that, she worked for almost 25 years at the BMW Group in international roles.

Maria Grazia Davino, Stellantis

Maria Grazia Davino became the most senior executive in Stellantis’ UK operations in September 2023, after taking over from Paul Willcox. She joined from her previous role overseeing sales and marketing for the multi-brand company’s European operations. Maria rose through the Fiat group after joining in 2011 and her CV includes the positions of CEO of Austria, Switzerland and Germany. Her first job in automotive was at Lamborghini.

Nicola Burnside, Alpine

Nicola Burnside was appointed head of Renault’s premium sporting Alpine brand in the UK in August 2023. A hobbyist racing driver, Nicola came over to Alpine from Mercedes-Benz where she’d worked for nearly six years in and around marketing, rising to head of customer experience and digital marketing. Prior to that she worked at the Volkswagen Group in the UK, becoming head of product marketing for Seat and head of digital marketing for Skoda.

Lorraine Bishton, Subaru

Lorraine Bishton was appointed in 2023 to head the Japanese brand in the UK after she moved from her previous role of sales and marketing director for McLaren’s MSO division. Prior to that Bishton, who has appeared among the finalists in the Great Women awards under her previous surname of Toolan, was global head of marketing for JLR Special Vehicles Operations after joining the company in 2000 under then-owner Ford. She started her automotive career with Ford’s credit division.

Melanie Lane, Podpoint

Melanie Lane joined the home and workplace EV charger company from the start of May this year after taking over from interim CEO Andy Palmer, the former boss of Aston Martin. Melanie switched from Shell Recharge, where she was CEO of the company’s electric charging division based in Amsterdam. A Shell lifer prior to her move, she joined in Australia as a maintenance manager and rose through the oil company into increasingly senior roles, including general manager of retail in the UK and general manager of aviation in Europe.

Paula Cooper, Toyota

Paula Cooper has led Toyota GB’s advanced customer strategy division since 2016 and also sits on the firm’s UK board. In that role she’s responsible for improving the whole customer experience, using data to identify new trends. Examples of her work for the company include introducing online retailing and launching subscription services for both Toyota and Lexus brands. Previously she was in charge of developing Toyota’s dealer network in the UK and she now oversees the company’s training academy. She joined Toyota GB in 1991.

Mandy Dean Ford UK

Mandy Dean looks after the sales and marketing of Ford’s key van division in the UK after being promoted in 2020 from the job of marketing director. Under Dean’s watch, the Ford Transit Custom regularly beats passenger cars in the race to become the UK’s best-seller outright, helping to establish the UK market as Ford’s biggest in Europe. Dean joined Ford in 1995 in purchasing and logistics before moving to commercial vehicles, holding key sales and marketing roles in both divisions as she climbed the ladder.

Fiona Howarth, Octopus Electric Vehicles

Fiona Howarth oversees the division within the green energy company that is positioning itself as a one-stop-shop providing customers with electric vehicles, including leasing the car, providing a tariff, installing chargers and in the future, using cars as energy storage to feed back into the grid. Fiona joined Octopus in 2017 from OVO Energy, where she was head of transformation. Before that Howarth worked at British Gas, where she was head of product and commercial for the Hive smart control system.

Rebecca Adamson, Honda

Rebecca Adamson was promoted in 2020 to this position responsible for overseeing Honda’s car sales in the country after impressing in her previous job as head of network and commercial development, looking after the brand’s dealers. Adamson joined Honda in 1999, spending most but not all of her career within sales operations. Outside sales, Adamson spent three years as head of corporate affairs for the company.

Pia Wilkes, VC

As head of the Vehicle Certification Agency, Wilkes is responsible for ensuring that the regulations governing the safety and emissions of all cars sold in the UK are met. She moved there in 2016 from a managing role in automotive testing organisation, Horiba Mira. She started her career at Lotus as a type approval engineer in 1996, before shifting to TWR and then to Prodrive as head of business development in 2003.

Sue Robinson, RMI

Robinson is in charge of the day-to-day running of the NFDA, the lobby group for franchised car and van dealers in the UK. She’s also a director of the Retail Motor Industry Federation (RMI), of which the NFDA is part. She started her role back in 2006 after joining the RMI first as press officer, then moving to PR and policy manager. Robinson started her career in magazine journalism after gaining a degree in social science and criminology from Birmingham University.

Jordan Brompton, Myenergi

Jordan Brompton helped start the Lincolnshire-based electric vehicle home charger company – owner of the Zappi brand – in 2016 along with Lee Sutton. She now oversees marketing as Myenergi expands abroad to Germany, Belgium, Australia and Ireland with a staff of 400. Jordan left her previous role as director of cycling product distribution company Spitfire in 2016 to co-found the company.

Avril Palmer-Baunack, Constellation Automotive Group

Palmer-Baunack leads the ambitious pan-European Constellation group that comprises high-profile brands such as BCA car auctions, We Buy Any Car, online car sales company Cinch and the Marshall Motor Group. She has also held the seat of Chair for Redde Northgate for 14 years. She has largely stayed in the automotive industry during her illustrious career, including stints at Stobart Group, Universal Salvage, and automotive services company Autologic.

Nicole Melillo Shaw, Volvo Car

Nicole Melillo Shaw was promoted to overall MD for this key global market in November 2023 after impressing as the company’s commercial operations director, a position she was promoted to in 2022. She joined in 2020 as consumer director, responsible for retail sales. Nicole came into that job from outside the car industry, working for seven years at drugs firm GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) where she rose to the position of global marketing director for skin healthcare.

Geraldine Ingham, JLR

Geraldine Ingham was appointed overall head of the luxury Range Rover brand in 2023 after returning to the heart of the automotive industry following three years as global director of automotive for Facebook parent company Meta, where she helped car makers deliver an effective digital marketing strategy partly using Facebook data. Prior to moving there she had been head of marketing for the VW brand since 2017, after moving from her role as marketing director of Nissan in France, a jump up from her post as chief marketing manager for the Japanese brand’s small cars across Europe.

Lynn Calder, Ineos Automotive

Lynn Calder was called to head up the automotive division within the giant Ineos chemicals conglomerate after spending six years at the group, including in multiple CEO roles. She was formerly in private equity with energy-focused Lime Rock Partners, where she was a vice president. Lynn’s responsibility has been to shift the company from its design, development and preliminary manufacturing phase into a serious sales operation, marketing the Grenadier off-roader and related models globally.

Diana Torres, Nissan Motor

Diana Torres became the newest female senior executive working in British automotive when she took up her post heading Nissan’s UK sales and marketing operations on 1 April this year. Diana has been with Nissan for over 10 years holding global, regional and market positions including leading marketing and sales finance in Nissan North America, CFO of Nissan Mexicana, and more recently as MD of Nissan Importer Business in Latin America. In her new role she reports to Mayra González, head of marketing and sales for Europe.