Women are moving up in the automotive world, across different sectors such as digital, retail and media

The Singapore automotive industry has never had more women behind the wheel and at the heart of the action, from car content creation to top-level corporate management. 

In the Leng Kee motor belt, for instance, there are more women running the show now. One of them is Ms Ong Lay Ling, who stepped up to become the Eurokars Group CEO in January this year. 

The company operates in Singapore, Indonesia, China and Australia, with its local operations centered on Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, MINI, Mazda, MG, BMW, McLaren, Pagani, and Porsche aftersales, plus the company’s related activities in pre-owned vehicles, car rental & leasing, and body & paint services.

Ms Ong is a Eurokars stalwart who joined the firm in 1993 as the financial controller and worked her way up the ranks - finance director in 1997, managing director in 2000 and group managing director in 2015, before becoming the group CEO in 2024.

At multi-brand distributor Wearnes Automotive in the same Leng Kee motor belt as Eurokars HQ, there are two female managing directors. Ms Sabrina Sng is the MD of Swedish premium EV brand Polestar and British high-performance marque Lotus, while Ms Corinne Chua is the MD of Volvo Cars. 

Both ladies started as marketing executives when they joined the Singapore motor trade, which goes to show that climbing the ladder of success in the automotive industry is like revving an internal combustion engine - the higher you go up the rev range, the harder it gets, but every driver can put pedal to the metal and aspire to the redline of success, regardless of gender.

Moving up a gear, too, is Ms Angela Poh, the newly-appointed deputy CEO of Motorist, the homegrown digital startup in the automotive arena which is operational in Singapore (headquarters), Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. She was the firm’s Chief Revenue Officer before this appointment.

So far this year, Motorist’s Ms Poh and Eurokars’ Ms Ong have deservingly joined the ranks of women in Singapore with leadership roles - 13.1% of Singapore companies in 2021 were helmed by a female chief executive officer, which is the highest share globally, according to a Deloitte report. 

(clockwise from top left) Motorist Deputy CEO Angela Poh, Eurokars Group CEO Ong Lay Ling, and Volvo Cars MD Corinne Chua.

Read More: Motorist appoints Ms Angela Poh as Deputy CEO of the company

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