Pub. 60 2019-2020 Issue 5

22 Christine Scott, 37 Senior Attorney, Group 1 Automotive C hristine Scott is a senior at- torney for Group 1 Automotive Inc. (Automotive News ranks the company at No. 4 on its list of the top 150 U.S. dealership groups.) Scott handles almost $1 billion in real-estate assets for the company, and her work requires traveling to the company’s U.S. dealerships. As she visited deal- erships, she noticed that although the number of female leaders within the company was growing, there might only be one general manager or sales manager in the state or region who was a woman. As a result, these women had few opportunities to interact with each other. Scott wanted to support and promote diversity within the auto retailing business. In 2020, she decided the best way to do that was to launch a women’s initiative that would focus on provid- ing the following to its members and potential new members: • Professional development • Peer-group networking • Education • Leadership training • Diversity and bias training • New talent recruitment Group 1’s senior management team currently has no women on it, but the company’s leaders have supported her efforts. They see her initiative’s goals as being an extension of the company’s core values. As a result, the initiative’s goals are in line with the company’s goals. The International Women’s Day in March, on Sunday, March 8, 2020, seemed like a good time to introduce the initiative at companywide lun- cheons. Unfortunately, the luncheons were scheduled around the time the U.S. shut down because of COV- ID-19. The group pivoted. The initia- tive’s goals since March are the same, and plans are continuing, but social distancing is now part of everything being done. National protests and civil unrest that happened as a result of George Floyd ’s death in Minneapolis on May 25, 2020, made bias training an obvious next step for the initia- tive. Scott also expects to focus on promoting greater diversit y. She suggests that when someone sees a problem, it is better to make changes than to complain. She has found that a surprising number of people are supportive and willing when it comes to making changes.  under