Meet Kimberley Gardiner, Senior VP of Marketing, Volkswagen

In this episode, you’ll meet Kimberley Gardiner, Senior Vice President of Marketing for Volkswagen. She truly is a model in leading authentically with confidence, caring, and understanding. You’ll learn how her twin passions for marketing and the environment propelled her into a career in automotive, and how her many experiences and her love for variety helped her become a true change agent. She talks about her game plan for effecting change within Volkswagen, including removing silos and “thinking small” to achieve big things. She discusses marketing the automotive industry to a new generation, and how important it is to understand their needs. 02:47 – Kimberley’s story 03:38 – Falling in love with marketing, and the environment 04:57 – Job opportunity at Toyota, marketing for Prius 06:56 – Using experiences in and outside of automotive to be an agent for change 08:05 – Why Volkswagen? 11:51 – Understanding other’s perspectives to effect change 14:36 – Breaking down silos and “thinking small” 17:24 – Marketing a career in automotive to a new generation 21:18 – Starting at VW 22:16 – Getting to know the team, coming up with a plan 25:58 – What authentic leadership means to Kimberley 33:53 – Advice to a leader wanting to embrace authenticity 36:36 – Embracing failure 40:24 – What Gravitas means to Kimberley 41:27 – How Kimberley starts her day 50:22 – Advice to her 25-year-old self

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