Women’s World Car of the Year WWCOTY
The Women’s World Car of the Year presented two awards at the London Motor Show; the car of the year to Volvo for the Volvo XC 40 and the Woman of Worth (WOW) award to Fiona Pargeter, Head of Global PR Communications, customer experience director, marketing communications, experiential marketing and customer insight at Jaguar Land Rover.
The London Motor Show
On Thursday 16th May, 11 female motoring writers from 10 different countries gathered on the Live Stage in the Main Hall of the exhibition center at the London Motor Show.
Volvo XC40 Women’s World Car of the Year
Beatrice Simonsson, Senior Product Manager from Volvo in Sweden, accepted the awards for the Volvo XC40 as the supreme winner of the 2018 Women’s World Car of the Year awards, as judged by 37 women motoring journalists from around the globe.
In presenting the certificate to Volvo, Solveig Grewe from Germany said, “After Ford sold Volvo, some wondered if Volvo would go the same way as Saab. They are not! Volvo has gotten stronger and has once again become a force to be reckoned with worldwide. They have brought out three SUVs in different sizes and have created plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles for the future.”
Beatrice Simonsson, Senior Product Manager from Volvo in Sweden, accepted the awards for the Volvo XC40
Marta Garcia from Spain gave the trophy to Simonsson and proclaimed, “Volvo is big in innovation, a great vehicle for city life with lots of safety features and technology. Last but not least, it is spacious with a contemporary design.”
Simonsson talked about the privilege of receiving the award, “It’s really special to have this award for the XC40. We aimed to have a large number of women for this car, and I am happy to say that the XC40 has the highest number of female buyers in the Volvo portfolio.”
Fiona Pargeter, Woman of Worth – WOW! award
On Friday 17th May, the writers presented a trophy and certificate to Fiona Pargeter, Global Communications Director for Jaguar Land Rover. Fiona won the inaugural winner of the Woman of Worth Award initiated last year as part of the Women’s World Car of the Year Awards.
Ilaria Salzano from Italy looked out at the crowd gathered at the London Motor Show, “Look at all the men in the room. And yet today we are here to honor a woman. A woman of worth. A woman of worth in the auto industry. One of the reasons we are honoring Fiona is because of her mentorship of women in the industry, which a core value of our organization.”
The award touched Fiona Parteger, “Women have been texting me all morning. Even my Mother called me.” Ariadni Gerasimidou from Greece presented the award to Pargeter, who talked about her life in the auto industry and women in the industry, “I really appreciate getting this award for recognizing women’s contribution in the auto industry. I have worked in the auto industry for thirty years. I started with Nissan. In fact, I spent some time working on the line.”
Nearly thirty years on Pargeter is still in the industry, working for Jaguar Landrover now, the largest car company in Britain. Pargeter lists one of Jaguars goals is the diversity of employees, “the national average of female apprentices coming into the industry is around four percent. We are trying to increase that percentage in engineering. We have increased our average of females in engineering to around 15-16 percent in the last five years. That is still very low, but we are very passionate about increasing that number.”
Next year nominations
The Women’s World Car of the Year will be voting for a new car next year. If you know of a Women of Worth that is in the automotive industry and mentoring other women let us know.
Congratulations Volvo and Fiona Parteger.
The Women’s World Car of the Year jurors
Women’s World Car of the Year – Judging Panel
Sandy Myhre – New Zealand – Honorary President
Marta Garcia – Spain – Executive President
Renuka Kirpalani – India
Charleen Clarke – South Africa
Regina Chan – Canada
Sue Baker – United Kingdom
Jill Mcintosh – Canada
Alicia Ryzewski – Argentina
Jacqui Madelin – New Zealand
Geraldine Herbert – Ireland
Maggie Barry – Scotland
Odiel Mennink – The Netherlands
Ylle Tampere – Estonia
Hoa Huyen – Vietnam
Sara Soria – Spain
Isabel Del Angel Negrete – Mexico
Carla Ribeiro – Portugal
Francisca Munoz Matus – Chile
Nadine Armstrong – Australia
Solveig Grewe – Germany
Anat Daniel – Israel
Liz Swanton – Australia
Ariadne Gerasimidou – Greece
Liza Maria Rojas – Columbia
Guillermina Fossati – Argentina
Petra Walter – Austria
Shereen Shabnam – Dubai
Olesya Repkina – Russia
Michelle Ferreira – Brazil
Nicole Wakelin – United States
Lou Hammond – United States
Alix Capper Murdoch – Cyprus
Ilaria Salzano – Italy
Mervi Varonen – Finland
Sabina Kvasova – Czech Republic
Etsuko Kusuda – Japan
Rita Cook – United States
Miladys Soto – Puerto Rico
Jimena Olazar – Argentina
Malene Raith – Denmark
Beatriz Nunez – Costa Rica
Melina Priam – France
Judith Hernández – Ecuador
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