Decisive Latino Summer 2014 Decisive Latino - Summer 2014 | Page 15

The Women of GMC With new and refreshed products like the Canyon and Yukon on the market, GMC invited a group of female auto journalists and bloggers to meet the women of GMC, including project managers, engineers, and executives, who make sure these vehicles are ready for the market. One out of five female employees at GMC are involved in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields, including metal stamping, laser welding, aerodynamics, and crash testing—did you know that General Motors built the modern crash test dummy and that they wear pink because it photographs more clearly than white? This compares to an average of one out of ten STEM employees who are women nationwide. “Tell a little girl she’s smart and by the time she turns four she’ll be interested in math and science,” asserted Liz Iverson, global vice president of product development quality. NOELIA GOZDZIK Noelia Gozdzik, 34, must have heard that message. A brake component development engineer working in noise and vibration testing, her parents were both teachers back in Puerto Rico. “I didn’t necessarily want to work on cars but I did want to work for a large company,” she shares. After ten years at General Motors, she has gone from working in manufacturing to the proving grounds “Working on brakes is very detail oriented,” she says. “There’s so much to do, I never get bored.” She’s also become involved in the Hispanic employee resource group, HIT, where she serves on the board. DECISIVE AUTO LATINO AUTONOTICIAS BRAKE NOISE TESTING BMW Group to Build New Plant in Mexico The BMW Group will build a new plant in Mexico in close proximity to the city of San Luis Potosí. This move is in line with the company’s clear strategic policy of ensuring globally balanced growth. “Mexico is an ideal location for the BMW Group and will be another important plant within our production network,” said Harald Krueger, member of the BMW AG Board of Management, responsible for Production. “We will invest $1 billion US dollars in the new production site over the next few years. Production is planned to start in 2019 and during that year, the workforce will reach around 1,500 people.” Over the medium term, several thousand jobs will be created on the plant site and in the surrounding area. The company will announce which BMW models will be built at the San Luis Potosí location at a later date. The BMW Group has operated a local sales company in Mexico since 1994 and sold a total of 13,992 vehicles in the country in 2013. This represents an increase of almost 18.3 percent over the previous year. Motorcycle sales for the same period reached 2,064 units. SUMMER 2014 | WWW.DECISIVELATINO.COM 13