The Automotive Leaders Podcast

In 1976, an 11-year-old girl from a small farm in Wales stood before a glass case in Greenwich, England, staring at strange uniforms and a document called the Constitution. The exhibition was titled "The British Story of the American Revolution." That was all Jan Griffiths knew of America, what she could see through the glass. Decades later, she sits in the engine room of that country, in Detroit,...

In Part 1, Jim Voss, CEO of Tenneco, took on a company in need of a turnaround. In Part 2, he hands you the playbook behind it. This is the Tenneco Way. Not a poster on a wall. Not a slide deck someone presents once a month. It’s the operating system running a 100-year-old company with more than 60,000 people across 28 countries. And as Jim puts it, it is the company's sustainable competitive adva...

How do you take a 100-plus-year-old automotive company with 158 manufacturing sites, operations in 28 countries, more than 60,000 employees, and over 30 brands and transform it into a top-performing company? That’s the question at the heart of Tenneco’s remarkable turnaround story. In less than three years, under the leadership of CEO Jim Voss and his team, Tenneco doubled its EBITDA margins, beco...

Season 7 of the Automotive Leaders Podcast is officially coming to a close, and Jan Griffiths is taking a moment to reflect on the journey, the lessons, and what’s ahead for the automotive industry. In this short solo episode, Jan shares why stepping back matters, how the team is preparing for an even stronger Season 8, and why listener feedback is shaping the future direction of the podcast. Jan...

For the first time in 26 years of the Working Relations Index, every single North American OEM moved up the chart. Ford, Toyota, Stellantis, Honda, GM, and Nissan all scored higher than the year before. That has never happened. Not once. In this special episode, Jan sits down with Dr. Angela Johnson, principal at Plante Moran responsible for the WRI, along with Sig Huber, Chief Commercial Officer...

What does it really mean to lead at the highest level in the automotive industry today? In this episode, Jan Griffiths sits down with Phil Biggs, the man quietly trusted by more than 100 CEOs across automotive and beyond. Known as the “CEO whisperer,” Phil has spent nearly a decade creating a confidential space where leaders can speak openly about the pressure, uncertainty, and responsibility that...

What happens when a 100-year-old luxury brand decides to think like a startup? In this episode, Jan Griffiths sits down with Joaquin Nuño-Whelan, President of Lincoln, live from Newlab at Michigan Central. This is not a conversation about cars. This is about leadership, culture, and what it really takes to transform a legacy brand from the inside out. Joaquin shares how he’s doing exactly that. Bu...

The USMCA review is fast approaching, uncertainty is building across the automotive industry, and leaders are asking a critical question: Is the agreement that binds North America together at risk? Colin Bird, the Consul General of Canada in Detroit, United States, brings clarity. This is not a collapse or a dramatic reset. It is a built-in review designed to test whether the agreement still works...

Q1 was a wild ride. Tariffs. Geopolitical shocks. Supply chain chaos. And now Q2 is here, and the question no one's asking out loud is: are you walking into your quarterly review meetings with the same playbook you've always used? Are you making decisions the same way? Operating the same way? Thinking the same way? Because if you are, this episode is for you. In this solo episode, Jan Griffiths la...

Reinvention in the automotive industry is no longer optional. It is survival. In this episode, Jan Griffiths sits down with Lori Lancaster, Vice Chair of Emotiv Mobility , to break down what reinvention really looks like when you are living it, not talking about it from a distance. The old playbook is cracking, and incremental improvement will not get us where we need to go. Yet many leaders are s...

If you had told Jan a year ago she would bring a member of Congress onto this show, she would have said you were crazy. But this isn’t about politics. It’s about survival. It’s about supply chains, tariffs, China, semiconductors, and the reality that policy decisions now move faster than most production lines. In this episode of the Automotive Leaders Podcast, Jan Griffiths sits down with Congress...

Download the full webinar slides here Special Audio from the February 20th Seraph Webinar Tariffs were struck down. So why does the pressure still feel the same? If the Supreme Court ruled against IEEPA, why aren’t costs meaningfully lower? This special episode is different. It is the full audio recording from the February 20th Seraph IEEPA Tariff Revocation Impact Webinar, led by Ambrose Conroy,...

This conversation goes straight at the tension every legacy leader feels but rarely names. How do you build something new inside a company designed for stability? How do you move fast inside a system built to control risk? How do you create urgency without burning out your team? In this episode of the Automotive Leaders Podcast, Jan Griffiths sits down with Ted Cannis, former CEO of Ford Pro and l...

This conversation doesn’t sugarcoat anything. The auto industry is under real pressure, and leaders can’t afford denial or delay. In this episode of the Automotive Leaders Podcast, Jan Griffiths sits down with Jamie Butters, now an independent journalist, speaker, emcee, and content creator who has spent decades reporting from every corner of the automotive ecosystem. Jamie brings a clear, grounde...

Re-industrializing America sounds bold. Necessary. Inevitable. But on factory floors across the country, automation keeps stalling before it ever delivers real value. Robots sit unused. Projects drag on for years. Leaders know automation is essential, yet decisions stall, risks get avoided, and the same problems repeat. This episode goes straight to the heart of why. Jan Griffiths is joined by Sør...

2025 didn’t just challenge the automotive industry. It exposed it. Tariffs that shifted overnight. Another chip crisis. A sudden rethink on EVs. Then Ford dropped the bomb: nearly $20 billion in charges as it pivoted away from EVs, stranding capital across the supply chain. And on top of it all, AI is moving faster than most leaders can keep up with. In this solo episode, Jan Griffiths presses pau...

Sometimes a conversation hits so deeply that it demands a part two , and that’s exactly what happened after our episode with MIT’s Dr. Bryan Reimer. The response was immediate, and the very first message came from CADIA CEO Cheryl Thompson, who had been quietly diving deep into AI for months. Her reaction captured what so many leaders are feeling right now: excitement, overwhelm, fear, and possibi...

AI dominates every conversation in the automotive industry, but very few companies know how to make it truly useful. That focus on real value is what led MIT research scientist Dr. Bryan Reimer to write How to Make AI Useful. The idea began casually over dinner in Lisbon, when someone asked him what he really thought about AI. Bryan didn’t dive into predictions about machines taking over. He focus...

Inside Panasonic’s gigafactories in Nevada and Kansas, machines never stop running. Every second, 70 batteries roll off the line, powered by thousands of people working 24/7. At the center of it all is Allan Swan, a Scotsman who left aerospace to lead one of the most ambitious manufacturing operations in America. Allan begins by explaining what a gigafactory really is and what it takes to manage a...

When people in the automotive world talk about leaders who bring out the best in others, Kim Less's name always surfaces. As Vice President of aftersales for Nissan Americas, she leads a team of more than 1,600 people in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and South America. Her leadership philosophy? Constant gentle pressure. The phrase, which came from Danny Meyer, perfectly captures how Kim shows up dail...

How does a 65-year-old automotive supplier reinvent itself for the future? That’s the question Jeff Edwards, Chairman and CEO of Cooper Standard, answers in this episode. With 22,000 employees across 20 countries, Cooper Standard is navigating one of the fastest periods of change in its history; not by clinging to the past, but by transforming how it leads, operates, and builds culture. Jeff expla...

Why do so many companies spend millions shaping their external image while missing the most important audience: their own people? That’s the question Jan Griffiths brings to Tina Kozak, CEO of Franco, in this episode of the Automotive Leaders Podcast. Together, they explain why internal communication is often overlooked, and what leaders can do to fix it. Tina talks about her “head and heart” styl...

Ford just made waves with news of a $30,000 EV pickup built on a universal platform. It promises fewer parts, lower costs, and faster assembly. But Jan Griffiths asks a bigger question: if automakers can reinvent the product, why not reinvent the way business gets done? That’s where Kate Vitasek comes in. As the creator of the Vested Methodology, Kate has spent more than 20 years studying how comp...

This episode is also available in English - click here La carrera de Tony Trecapelli en la industria automotriz comenzó en Saturn, donde pudo ver, de primera mano, cómo podía ser la cultura centrada en personas. Se confiaba en los empleados, se fomentaba la colaboración y los líderes trataban a la fuerza de trabajo como compañeros. Ese ambiente formó su perspectiva desde el principio.  Cuando...

This episode is sponsored by Lockton, click here to learn more This episode is available in Spanish - click here Watch the full video on YouTube - click here Tony Trecapelli's career in automotive began at Saturn, where he saw firsthand what a people-centered culture could look like. Employees were trusted, collaboration was encouraged, and leaders treated the workforce as partners. That environme...