Ana Lovera

Founder, Sourcing Values Inc

Ana is a 20-year automotive industry veteran that occupied diverse leadership positions in Supply Chain operations for Vehicle and Power Train manufacturing plants located in over a dozen countries across Asia Pacific, Africa and Latin America. Ana started her career at age 17 in her native Venezuela as a shop-floor translator. “Experts would come from all over the world to teach our local engineers all about running a factory efficiently, Ana recalls; and I was the communication link among them.” This experience ignited her passion for operational excellence, the power of mentorship, and collaboration across cultures. After a long successful career in the corporate world, Ana reinvented herself as an entrepreneur. She founded Sourcing Values Inc., a global sourcing consulting agency based in Canada, focused on sourcing and developing suppliers for Small and Medium-sized companies in the OEM world.

Meshell R Baker

Chief Confidence Igniter

Meshell Baker is the Chief Confidence Igniter, Exhilarating Keynote Speaker, and Confident Living Catalyst is renowned for her authentic value-based, and no-nonsense approach to embracing high-performance resilience that inspires more confident conversations and generates unprecedented results. Described as "a breath of fresh air," and "the power of her story combined with her passion and enthusiasm is enough to make anyone want to tap into their potential." Meshell has phenomenal results, and accolades compiling an incredible track record of raving recommendations with clients, such as Dell, UPS, Microsoft, Salesforce, Accenture, Women In Trucking, and more, over the past 20+ years.

Claudia Marquez

Chief Operating Officer, Genesis Motor North America

Claudia Marquez joined Genesis Motor North America in October 2021 as chief operating officer leading the strategy and execution of all sales, after-sales, marketing, and growth strategies for Genesis in the United States and Canada. With more than 29 years of automotive industry experience, Marquez has developed and implemented successful growth strategies for multiple premium automotive brands, including BMW and Infiniti. Before her appointment as Genesis COO, Marquez was CEO of Hyundai Motor Mexico, where she increased sales, strengthened dealer relations, and grew brand awareness. Prior to joining Hyundai, Marquez served in several prominent industry roles including as vice president of sales and vehicle operations for Nissan, as senior director of sales operations for Infiniti, as director of marketing for Nissan in Latin America and the Caribbean, as director of sales and marketing for BMW Group Mexico, and as brand director for MINI in Mexico.

Stephen Livingston

Co-Chair - Global Women of Ford & Chief Ally, Ford Motor Company

Stephen has contributed within Ford Motor Company through many roles ranging from technology portfolio management and strategic definition through software delivery and technology operations in collaboration with numerous skill teams & functional areas within the Company over his two decades of experience – such as, Human Resources; Learning & Development; Healthcare & Benefits; Marketing, Sales & Service; Product Development; The Lincoln Motor Company; Customer Experience and most recently in a Customer Relationship Management Technology Product Group Leadership role. Stephen also currently serves as the Global Co-Chair (Chief Ally) for the Women of Ford – Employee Resource Group. He is extremely passionate about creating, cultivating and fostering an inclusive, diverse, equitable, collaborative and respectful work environment. He has been consistently recognized as a "sets a new bar of excellence" leader within the Company numerous times. He has regularly and consistently demonstrated advocacy, allyship and "being an accomplice" (challenging the status quo and engaging in impactful action) throughout his entire career.

Rima Ghafari Jasser

Global Chair - Women of Ford, Ford Motor Company

Rima Jasser is the Global Director for Lean and Six Sigma. She assumed this role in June of 2022. In this role, Rima is responsible for Global Lean and Six Sigma Implementation with key focus on standardization, waste elimination and culture change. She is currently the Women Of Ford Manufacturing Global Chair and serves on the Board of Directors for the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation.​ ​ Previously, Rima was the Final and Paint Area Manager at Michigan Assembly Plant and Final Area Manager at Chicago Assembly Plant. She served in those capacities from August of 2019 – May of 2022.​ ​ From 2015-1019, Rima was the Global Industrial Engineering Manager for powertrain. In this role, Rima was responsible for globally developing new program capacity strategy including operating patterns, determining launch curves and build ahead plans, leading direct, indirect and salaried labor staffing for new programs, supporting the machine acceptance process, delivering design for ergonomics, assessing overall productivity constraint analysis on new programs, administering the engineered JPH database, validation of production systems for FIS, and developing IE standards.​ ​ Rima also co-led the cost council. She was the sponsor for the Livonia WIM Chapter and PTME Quick Connections. Rima is the co-lead for Women in Manufacturing Committee. She is also active in supporting March of Dimes fundraising activities, Komen Foundation, MS and Global Health Charity.​ ​ Rima previously served as Asia Pacific FPS Manager where she was responsible for implementing lean manufacturing across 19 facilities. Within two years the plants achieved full implementation. She was also responsible for launching Manufacturing Work Groups and Team Leader and Process Coach Academy. Rima launched the first Women in Manufacturing Chapter in Asia Pacific.​ ​ Rima worked at Dearborn Assembly and Dearborn Truck Plant for 15 years. She held different positions ranging from Environmental Engineer, Facility Engineer, Industrial Engineer, Production Supervisor, acting Superintendent, Production Engineering Manager and FPS Manager. ​ ​ Born in 1968, Rima holds a Bachelor Degree in Chemistry from Wayne State University, Master of Science in Manufacturing Management and Master of Science in Operations Management from Kettering University and she is currently pursuing Master of Science in Engineering Management from Eastern Michigan University.​

Sabrina Yuan

VP Strategy and Business Development Company, Cariad Inc. – a Volkswagen Group Company

Sabrina Yuan is VP Strategy and Business Development for Cariad North America. Cariad is Volkswagen group’s automotive software company, which is building the leading tech stack for the automotive industry to make mobility safer, more sustainable and more comfortable. Sabrina was SVP BD and Strategy at Eli Electric Vehicles, a compact electric vehicle startup, where she led the launch of their first vehicle to market globally. Her other prior experiences include being co-founder and COO at SecuritAI, an image intelligence AI software company, and COO at Redrock Capital, a private equity fund. Prior to transition to business from law, she was General Counsel for Porsche Group in the Great China area and part of the team that developed the Chinese market into the No.1 market for Porsche worldwide. She started her career at Siemens, working across a wide range of areas including automotive tier 1, healthcare, industrial manufacture, finance, international trade and logistics. Sabrina holds master’s degrees from Stanford Graduate Schoolof Business and Georgetown University Law Center.

Ashwini Balasubramanian

GM - Advanced Engineering, Harley Davidson Motor Company I President, Automotive Women's Alliance Foundation

Ashwini Balasubramanian currently serves as General Manager – Advanced Engineering at Harley-Davidson. In this role, she leads all aspects of advanced engineering including test & reliability engineering, core engineering, Program management and innovation teams.  Ashwini is also responsible for delivering motorcycle leading innovation and technology road maps across the motorcycle portfolio. Over her career, Ashwini has had extensive experience in leadership leading global engineering and sales/marketing teams. She previously served as Global Director for Market Intelligence/Strategy at Martinrea International. Prior to that she served as Engineering Manager for ZF North America, and a Vehicle Development and New Technology Team Leader for Toyota, NVH engineer at Bosch. Ashwini holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from India, and a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan. She is also a certified Sustainability Excellence Associate. Automotive News named her a “Rising Star,” in 2019. Ashwini serves on the Advisory Board for the Center for Automotive Diversity, Inclusion & Advancement (CADIA) & is the President of the Automotive Women's Alliance Foundation (AWAF). She is very passionate about D, E&I and is committed to supporting women reach their professional & personal goals.

Anna Markett

SVP, Supply Chain Stellantis North America

Anna Markett was named senior vice president, supply chain, Stellantis North America in August 2022. In this role, she is responsible for instilling and executing the company’s Dare Forward 2030 plan, including long-range planning, demand planning, production planning, order to delivery, supplier capacity, inbound/outbound logistics and managing the consistent flow of parts into the company’s 35 plants in North America. Markett joined the company in 2000 and has worked her way through leadership roles in both supply chain and manufacturing. In 2022, she was named a recipient of the Women in Supply Chain award by Supply & Demand Chain Executive.

Mandi Damman

Executive Chief Engineer - Autonomous Vehicles, General Motors

Mandi Damman began her career at General Motors in 2003 as a Product Development co-op student and accepted a full-time position as an Engineering Specialist in noise & vibration in 2007. After two years, she became the Design Release Engineer for steering columns and intermediate shafts where she later became the Lead Design Release Engineer for belt driven electric power steering gears on global midsize vehicles. In 2013, Damman was appointed Vehicle Performance Engineer for ride and handling and was later selected to serve as the Engineering Business Manager for vehicle performance, proving grounds and test labs. Damman went on to become the Lead Development Engineer for an eAssist hybrid program and later lead the development of the second-generation Volt. In 2016, Damman was selected as Program Engineering Manager for future mobility solutions and six months later, transitioned to the autonomous vehicle program, where she was then promoted to the Chief Engineer leading the execution of General Motors first autonomous vehicles. In 2019, Mandi returned to the Milford Proving Ground as the Director of Vehicle Dynamics, Noise & Vibration and HVAC Hardware Development. Her leadership was critical in the reorganization of the performance integration teams and she set the vision for future virtual development. In 2022, Mandi transitioned to the Battery Electric Truck team where she was asked to lead the reinvention of the ESCALADE IQ, a true flagship for the Cadillac brand. At the end of 2023, Mandi returned to Autonomous Vehicles where she was promoted to Executive Chief Engineer and tasked with leading the GM and Cruise Automation teams to safety deploy autonomous vehicles and scope future robotaxi’s and personal autonomous vehicles. In addition to her engineering responsibilities, Damman is involved in her community and passionate about STEM education. She volunteers at multiple STEM events throughout the year and has served on the leadership committee for SAE’s A World in Motion Program. In 2018, Damman was asked to serve on the GM Women Executive Leadership Board at GM and started an “Empower Hour” leadership group with 20 women in various stages of their careers from across the GM enterprise. She spends several hours a month mentoring engineers across the company and is committed to leveraging her network to assist others. Damman earned a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Kettering University in 2007 and a Master of Engineering from the University of Michigan in 2012. In 2018, Ms. Damman was awarded the Engineering Achievement Alumni Award from Kettering University. In 2023, she was selected as the recipient of the 2023 ISD Distinguished Alumni Award for the College of Engineering at the University of Michigan.

Micha Goebig

Founder & CEO, GO BIG Coaching

Micha Goebig helps female professionals become confident leaders in male-dominated environments. To gain the confidence and visibility to take their careers to the next level (and beyond!), she guides women through her 5-step framework to 10X their confidence at work as well as unlearning what holds them back, most often negative self-talk, impostor syndrome, perfectionism, self-sabotage, and people-pleasing. Micha is a certified coach, speaker, and published author. Before training as a coach, she founded – and still owns – a boutique agency that specializes in translation, editing and copywriting for the German luxury car and supplier industries, a field in which she has 20 years of experience as a communications expert, intercultural trainer and workshop host. Micha is a member of Forbes Coaches Council. She holds a master’s degree from the University of Munich, taught at colleges in the US and Germany, and trained with leading executive coaches in Germany and the US.

Melinda Mernovage

Director, Corporate Communications, Global Business and Markets & NA, Mercedes-Benz Mobility AG

Melinda Mernovage is Head of Global Business, Markets and North America Communication for Mercedes-Benz Mobility. In this role, she leads the company’s communications strategy including internal and external communication, executive communications, corporate citizenship, workplace culture and corporate events. She is a member of the company’s North American executive leadership team and the global Corporate Communications leadership team. Previously, she was the Head of Corporate Communications for the company’s Africa and Asia Pacific Region, headquartered in Singapore, with responsibility for 11 countries. Melinda began her career at Visteon Corporation in 2002. She joined the Mercedes-Benz (previously Daimler) Group in 2005, in the Commercial Vehicles division and transitioned to Mercedes-Benz Mobility in 2011. Melinda holds a bachelor’s degree in Communications from Bowling Green State University and a master’s degree in Organizational Communication and Development from Ball State University. She is a passionate DEI advocate and is active in the local community.

Rebecca Paradise

Sr. Director Global HRBP Automotive & CIO, Flex

Rebecca Paradise joined Flex in February 2018 as the Automotive Human Resources Business Partner for the Metro Detroit locations, soon moving into a regional role with responsibility for all R&D and Corporate for North America. In 2022 moving into her current role of lead Human Resources for the Global Automotive Business Unit. With over 12 years of Human Resources experience, Rebecca has a passion for employee development and DEI initiatives and brings a fresh perspective to the Automotive Industry from her previous role as the head of HR at a local Tech start up. In her various roles at Flex, she has developed or sponsored many initiatives supporting the growth and development of our diverse team.