WOMEN IN ACCESS
33
JULY-AUGUST 2013
ACCESS, LIFT & HANDLERS
job, knew my product, knew my customers
and the industry, and could, with some level
of accuracy, determine what my customers
needed and get it to them, then whether I was a
male or female was irrelevant.”
During the beginning of her career, Manning
says she took advantage of brilliant minds
around her and soaked up as much information
and knowledge she could. She spent time
learning not only about products but also about
the industry and evolution of it as a whole.
“I had to put down
Cosmo
and
People
[magazines] and pick up industry magazines
like
Elevator World
and
ENR
,” she says. “As a
member of various industry associations, I was
able to join and volunteer for many committees
that put me in the room with decision makers
from a myriad of industry sectors. During most
of these meetings I was the only woman at the
table, and more often than not the youngest
person in the room.”
Manning says the access industry is an
accepting, friendly bunch. She started to realize
that business moves at the “speed of light”
and everything, every customer, every job is
an “I need it now” situation. She says those
who succeed maintain a heightened sense of
urgency, a dedication to customer service and
an almost a tangible passion for doing things
right and safely.
But the urgency of the industry has had its
drawbacks.
“It was difficult to establish a work-life
balance and I struggle with that to this day,”
she says. “So many members of our industry
work around the clock and I fell right into that
habit. I rarely turn off my phone and charge
it on my bed side table. I am available to our
employees and customers at almost all times.
I enjoy staying this busy but I look forward to
catching an overseas flight where I actually
have my phone turned off for 10 straight hours.
Who knew 40,000 feet could be so peaceful?”
The Hat Woman
Jenny Snow-Boscolo is a Terex Business
Systems consultant and a guru in lean
manufacturing. She graduated from Georgia
Tech in 1997 with an industrial and systems
engineering degree and left town shortly after to
join Boeing in Seattle as an engineer.
“I always knew I was more interested in
manufacturing as a day-to-day work life,” she
says. “It was more intriguing to me than, say,
computer-related work.”
She stayed with Boeing for three years before
leaving the company to work for Genie. “There
were several people who had been recruited
out of Boeing to Genie to go into manufacturing
operations, so I called up someone I had worked
with and said, ‘Hey, tell me more about that
little company you’re working for in Redmond.’”
Not long after, in 2000, Snow-Boscolo joined
Genie as a manufacturing engineer and she
was placed in what was then the “brand new
RT scissors building.” The company, which had
needed to be well informed, almost to a fault”
Manning started in inside sales and worked
her way around the company through the
sales and marketing departments of Champion
Elevators. She held a number of positions,
including director of marketing, national
product manager and vice president of GEDA
products. She then worked with Alimak Hek as
its national business development manager and
also director of marketing. In 2012, she joined
Century Elevators where she is now the vice
president and general manager.
“No two days are ever alike,” Manning says.
“[I enjoy] the fast-paced nature of the industry
and the unique projects I get to be a part of.”
Manning, like Boyd, says there are definite
advantages to being a woman in the industry,
but in general, no matter what a person’s
gender, people always have to prove
themselves in the workplace.
“I clearly remember my first ‘lunch and
learn’ with a group of structural engineers
in Washington, D.C.,” Manning relates. “I
was maybe 28-years-old and clearly not an
engineer. I spent so much time preparing;
learning about the company and where it
was going, where it had been, etcetera, that I
thought I wouldn’t be nervous. I was confident
in the content of my presentation. I was worried
about the reception I would receive as a non-
engineer, South Texas girl coming to D.C. to
educate these men, all men, on the benefits of
utilizing a new piece of equipment.”
Manning says the novelty of her being a young
female with a Texas accent was enough to get
a few of the men in the room to listen to her
opening, but after a few moments, more started
paying attention and, eventually, they started
asking questions. By the end of the week,
Manning had quotes out on several projects and
by month’s end, one project was starting.
“I often look back on that day and think that
that was like a baptism to me, my first day
as a peer to these men I had so nervously
wanted to impress,” she says. “[Women] are
fairly outnumbered but I consider that a benefit
because it’s a little something different in the
board room, a fresh perspective. I decided a
long time ago that I wouldn’t ever make it an
issue or a source of irritation for me. If I did my
“There were older supervisors
who I worked with that were never
going to reach a different level of
respect for me as a professional.
Things have changed a lot in the
last 13 years.”
JENNY SNOW-BOSCOLO,
Terex Business Systems consultant
