Barbara Cox Awards 2024 nominees:
Jacqui Barker
OEM Strategy Director, Global at
Keyloop
Brief biography of you and your career
Jacqui joined Keyloop in March 2022 to run the global OEM Brand Director team. Her background with OEMs spans almost 30 years, from launching three car magazines, selling advertising and training sales teams to a broader career in B2B media and research. She’s also launched the OEM channel and education of the digital audience at Autotrader, a one-year contract with fintech company iVendi, and spent six years in automotive eCommerce with Summit/drivvn.
Jacqui’s role at Keyloop recently changed. From leading the team running the global relationships with OEMs as they navigate digital transformation outside of the core DMS landscape, she switched to a more strategic role to support the repositioning of Keyloop and its Experience First platform.
That’s included education of tech and how to utilise and connect this complex and ever-evolving space. She has leveraged her global network of automotive contacts which support the broader Keyloop strategy (API driven) to connect and integrate the core retail functionality it already provides to OEMs and their retailers.
Outside of work, Jacqui is a single mum to three (almost) fully grown boys. She’s well known for her tireless energy and positivity. She spent 10 years freelancing to manage family commitments, volunteering at her children’s school and a cathedral choir. She is also guardian to two students from China studying in the UK.
And if that’s not impressive enough, Jaqui also sings jazz standards in a local quartet and mentor three young people in their early careers.
What is your proudest achievement as a leader or role model?
“I believe that almost anything is possible if you try.
“A year ago, my boss requested that I establish relationships with OEMs in Canada, so I set up a new event with a truly diverse lineup of speakers in terms of gender, race and background. An automotive event is mostly full of the same (predominantly male) faces who appear in many of the events across their native market.
“I won’t lie, the idea started as a ‘let’s invite some people to a single location for meetings and maybe lunch?’ But Canada is huge, the idea snowballed from lunch to “let’s have speakers and do something more memorable”. I got the go-ahead, and the rest is not simply history. It’s now a thing we do in all our markets.
“The Keynote was delivered by Claudia Worms Sciama – MD at Google Canada. I saw her speaking at a press event and asked if she would do the same for me. She said she’d be delighted to, not only to attend but the spread the word.
“The panel was 50:50 male to female, with me facilitating. So, technically, the men were outnumbered. Three of the panellists had never spoken in public before, so this was brand new, and they all spoke of the innovations they were leading within their own OEM or retail groups.
“My boss Harvey (also female) led the intro and our newly launched Experience First campaign.
“Little did I know a young woman from Hyundai Canada, Aryan Habib, was in the audience. Along with two other young women, she was setting up a new initiative called Empowering Auto. Aryan reached out to me to lead a panel of women in the Canadian Automotive market in September 2023 on personal branding.
“The event aimed at promoting automotive as an industry of choice to young female graduates and attracted over 500 people, split between OEMs, their teams and students looking for their first opportunity. I continue to support the work Aryan and the team started through webinars and coaching.
“So, that initial idea not linked Keyloop to Canadian OEMs and we did it by supporting innovation and inclusion. Experience First Events are now being rolled our globally. To date, I have been able to lead panel discussions with industry leaders driving innovation in the Middle East and, most recently, in South Africa.
What is the most significant innovation you have been involved with?
“I have a reputation for having a lot of energy, as well as the ability and passion to launch things. My Career started with the launch of Max Power, then Revs, and ultimately Evo, which are still going today. Following a long career in media, I was approached to launch the OEM channel at AutoTrader. Despite having display advertising, the share of voice was poor and there was a perception that AutoTrader was only for used cars.
“I recruited a steering committee of five OEMs, and we created an education program to share insight into car buyer behaviour and unlock opportunities to convert more buyers earlier in their buying journey.
“The experience was super valuable for the OEMs to get involved in the emerging space of ecommerce. I joined a team of retail specialists at the then London based agency Summit, who were building the early sites for online car buying in automotive. I’ve always chosen roles based on the purpose of the job, this time it was to make it easier to buy cars. The typical experience felt outdated and I wanted to be in a company that had some of the answers I felt the industry needed.
“We launched the early iterations of the ‘reserve online’ for Peugeot through to deploying the full end-to-end e-commerce solution across Europe for Stellantis. OEMs now look to Stellantis as the leading digital trailblazer. Not only had we managed to launch sites, but we did it multi-brand and multi-market. I stayed on to be part of the rebrand to drivvn (we split out the auto business) and went on to launch the now iconic EV comparator tool for Volvo and Audi which makes it simpler to compare the cost of ownership from ICE to EV.
“Every innovation starts with ‘what happens now?’ and ‘what’s the wouldn’t it be great if?’ statements. I learned that at AutoTrader and I regularly use it as the starting point in any conversation with customers or teams.”
What do you do to give back to charity and/or the wider community?
“I currently guardian for two young overseas students Rupert 12 and Riley 14 when they are unable to travel home to Hong Kong for school holidays. My own boys are now getting older; the eldest two mostly live away to work and study, which leaves my mass catering skills underutilised. Rupert and Riley stay as part of my family.
“Outside of this, I work with our village teams to pick litter and organise village events. As a single parent, time is a challenge, so I use social media to raise awareness for ovarian cancer, and this year, I’m joining a bunch of friends to run the Race for Life Pretty Muddy 5K.”
What advice would you give to a woman considering a career in automotive?
There are so many opportunities in this industry, as a consumer group, women are largely under-represented in automotive, which means that at every level women could absolutely shape the way we innovate every experience, from car buying; recognition that our cars are an accessory, we love accessories and we have money to spend so help us buy what we want, financial options provide freedom and flexibility. Servicing can now be an automated and delightful experience, we can help the industry think like a women, have a voice and unlock efficiency we know we bring daily. Digital innovation provides the chance to measure data by demographics, we have the data that allows us to test learn and shape the way we buy, live with and renew our mobility as life evolves in all it’s wonderful stages.
As a demographic group, it’s clearly documented that we out-perform the boys at school, in further education women have better results and we need to hold our heads higher and raise our voices to ensure that the industry will optimise the commercial opportunities women bring, this is not a pink tick in a box, it makes commercial sense to have a workforce that represents the customers we serve. There has never been a better time!
What advice would you give your younger self on having a successful career?
Thes advice I was given as a rookie, was do the job you have now, to the best of your abilty, don’t look at the next job up, do what you need to do and then when you feel you have nothing more to learn, find the next challenge.
I would add to that 3 great self reflective questions I found in the “Code of the Extraordinary Mind” to ask yourself, I found this book at a very challenging time personally and I regularly use it in coaching. How do you want to learn, How do you want to grow? How do you want to contribute? Measure success in these ways and you will be more happier and fulfilled as you go through life.
Success is not about money or status, it’s about the joy we find in growth and how we serve what we all have as a core purpose, that core purpose is so different for each person, so find your magic and use the gifts that only you have.
