Andy Aldworth spoke to HRD about advocating for more women in the auto industry and senior leadership roles
Andy Aldworth, chief people officer of Jowett Motor Group (JMG), believes more needs to be done to attract women into the automotive industry and remove the stereotype of a ‘male-dominated space.’
He says while the “unconscious bias” within the industry has gone, more needs to be done to encourage women into the industry.
“We need to help make sure that when we recruit, we remove as much of that [bias] as possible. I think fundamentally it’s how we get more women in to every role in the industry and then develop them," he said.
“We need to create more examples, more clear examples of paths forward. For individuals when they start their career, or in the middle of their career – they can directly see how someone joined the industry and how they got to those executive positions. We need to drive the charge for change.”
Female leaders in the sector include Carolyn McMahon, the former vice president and director of Honda Australia, who earlier his year was named president of Honda New Zealand, the first woman to hold the role. And senior business executive Rebecca Frizelle, the former COO of Frizelle Sunshine Automotive and fomer chair of the NRL club the Gold Coast Titans.
Aldworth belives the best way to increase female representation across industries and markets starts with eductaion and ensuring courses and degress that have lower female participation are made more attractive.
“Education and thought leaders really need to lead the charge for this – it’s not just important for the board of the organisation, but they’ll also see a huge return on investment if they put time into working with people to develop talent,” Aldworth added.
Nationally, less than a quarter of CEOs (22.3%) are female, with less than one-in-five (18%) females being board chairs, according to the findings.
Aldworth wants to see greater female representation across functions of the executive suite noting the “sheer amount of fantastic female talent” in the executive sphere.
“I don't think it's necessarily the role of HR to encourage female representation, but I definitely think we should be leading the charge,” he said.
Aldworth – whose career spans more than 25 years across both Australia and New Zealand – began his working life anting to be clinical psychologist, having always been fascinated in people. It was after a trip to a psych ward in his third year of study that he realised “this isn’t for me.”
“I went on to study organisational psychology and got a master’s degree in business – before heading off to work in New Zealand’s public sector,” Aldworth told HRD. “Then I moved back to Melbourne and have pretty much just continued to develop in my career – with a short stint as a project manager.”
Aldworth has worked for a number of different organisations since 1998, including City of Melbourne, Land Information New Zealand, and SS&C, before joining Jowett Motor Group, which operates car dealerships across Victoria, South Australia and the ACT for brands such as Honda and BMW, in 2023.
