WOMEN IN ACCESS
31
JULY-AUGUST 2013
ACCESS, LIFT & HANDLERS
easily offended. Men would be howling on the
lines as you rode by in a little golf cart and I’d
just have to wave or take a bow. After a point,
then, instead of trying to confront women, the
guys become a little bit offended so they’d hide
their nudey calendars when I came in. I was
a woman in a really male-dominated industry
then and all of my customers were guys. All of
my people were guys.”
And all of those people – from hydraulics and
equipment companies – are still Boyd’s people.
“It’s like a full circle for me,” she says. “All
those guys who were my clients then are my
suppliers today.”
Boyd continued on her path, working up to a
director level of the company doing OEM sales,
distribution, marketing, product development,
new product technology and strategic work.
She then transitioned into an automotive phase
where she worked for Tenneco, which was
primarily an exhaust and suspensions systems
company that sold to after-market OEMs like
Ford Motor Company, General Motors, Toyota,
Audi and more. She ran Tenneco’s Ford
business for them and “knitted 13 companies
that were autonomous” into
one. Boyd found herself starting
new divisions that focused
on commercial vehicles and
specialty markets where Tier 4
engine talk started creeping into
vocabulary and engineering.
“I really understand Tier 4 and
what my maintenance crew [at
HERC] is now up against,” she says.
And then in 2007, Boyd joined Hertz,
serving as senior vice president of process
improvement and project management until
2011, where she then held post of senior vice
president of Hertz’s Advantage Rent A Car. She
was appointed president of HERC in April 2011.
“When I first came in I was lucky that I had
hydraulics and automotive experience behind
me because I knew a lot of suppliers and
had an understanding,” she says. “But this is
really all about relationships and selling. It’s a
traditional model.”
‘Take chances’
In the early days of her career, Boyd credits the
“legacy guys” and their experience that helped
her create a strong team, but like most women
in power have faced, there were naysayers in
the beginning.
“Being a woman coming into this industry,
most people were very skeptical about it,” she
says. “But what I do is bring different things to
them,” she says. “I bring visions from outside
and visions of what the future should look like.”
Boyd recalls a visit to China and how it felt to
be a woman while at the state-owned National
Heavy Industries.
“When you go into a room, you position the
person with the most power at the center of the
table,” she says. “So we’re all positioned on
our side and then the last person comes into
the room and the middle seat is reserved for a
woman! She says to me, ‘I am so surprised to
see a woman sitting across the table from me.’
And I said to her, ‘I am glad to see a woman
sitting across from me.’”
The industry is definitely changing. Boyd says
being a woman in a male-dominated industry
allows for a different angle and approach. While
everyone – no matter what gender – has to
have the knowledge to understand the work
and apply themselves, women can offer a softer
side and a balance to the team.
“You get attention because you’re the only
woman sometimes and that can be good and
bad,” she says. “For women in general, I think
the opportunities are pretty much endless if
you’re willing to put yourself out there, but you
have to be willing to take chances to do that.”
Boyd says women – and men – must
volunteer, raise their hands, deliver and
produce results. The more anyone does the
more they can be depended on, and that, Boyd
says, makes people strive to be even better.
She stresses building a team that is stronger
than you. “They will make you better,” she
says. “They will stretch you and take you out to
the next level.”
Boyd works with what she calls her “5,000,”
which is approximately how many people
HERC employs, and she gets all 5,000 on a
conference call quarterly.
“If I can have the entire 5,000 understanding
all of our methods, understanding why,
being able to ask a question at any time; that
communication empowers them. They’re the
shareholders in me and I work for them,” she
says. “I believe in empowering your people and
giving them the tools that make their jobs very
doable. By doing that, what you do is empower
them to take better care of your clients and if
you can get those two things humming, the rest
of it will come.”
Elevator Leader
Paula Manning grew up around elevators and
hoists. Her family business, founded in 1976,
was Emscor Elevators.
Manning graduated from both Kilgore College
and the University of Houston with degrees
in formal dance and food and beverage,
respectively. After she spent five years in the
food and beverage industry she knew she was
ready for a change and took a temporary job at
Champion Elevators.
“That was in 1997 and I haven’t left yet,” she
says. “The early days were a crush of learning. I
knew that to be taken seriously in this industry I
Lois Boyd (center front) and members of her
“5,000 team”.
“The early days were a crush of learning. I knew that
to be taken seriously in this industry I needed to be well
informed, almost to a fault.”
PAULA MANNING, vice president and general manager of Century Elevators
