Left to Right: Joyce Tshiamala, district customer service manager, Hyundai Canada; Oumar Dicko, chief economist, Canadian Automobile Dealers Association and Founding Member of Accelerate Auto; Emiliano Void, operations manager, Dealer.com, Cox Automotive Canada; Nial Boatswain, general manager with the Drive Auto Group; Jennifer Okoeguale, corporate special events, external affairs at Toyota Canada
Don Romano, President & CEO Hyundai Canada
Don Romano, president and CEO of Hyundai Canada announced at a special event on Thursday April 8th an investment of more than $250,000 in Georgian College and the Automotive Business School of Canada over seven years to support Black and Indigenous automotive business students.
Romano, who was a keynote speaker at the event Auto Connect: Opportunities for Black Youth, made the announcement alongside Oumar Dicko, chief economist, Canadian Automobile Dealers Association and Founding Member of Accelerate Auto and Joe Lauzon, marketing officer, ABSC.
During the event Joyce Tshiamala, district customer service manager, Hyundai, moderated a panel of three Black professionals who represent different sectors of the auto industry, and included founding members of Accelerate Auto, a new not-for-profit established to combat anti-Black and systemic racism in Canada’s auto industry. Those members were: Emiliano Void, operations manager, Dealer.com, Cox Automotive Canada, Jennifer Okoeguale, corporate special events, external affairs at Toyota Canada Inc. The third industry expert was Nial Boatswain, an industry veteran and general manager with the Drive Auto Group.
The Hyundai Canada Entrance Award Suite will offer $1,000 renewable entrance awards given to students self-identifying as Black or of Indigenous ancestry who are accepted into the college’s Automotive Business diploma program or Honours Bachelor of Business Administration (Automotive Management) program. The award will be renewable for each year of the recipient’s program.
The Hyundai Canada Entrance Award Suite adds to the company’s existing scholarships for Georgian students, including the Hyundai Canada Diversity Scholarship and Women in Automotive Scholarship.
Dr. MaryLynn West-Moynes, President and CEO of Georgian College
“It’s incredibly important to have awards for underrepresented groups and it’s wonderful to have corporate donors such as Hyundai Canada supporting our students in this way,” Dr. MaryLynn West-Moynes, president and CEO of Georgian College said in a recent press release.
“The donation will fuel an innovative and critical initiative designed to grow the number of students in these demographics studying the automotive industry and who will later join the sector’s workforce,” Georgian College stated.
The initiative will also help Hyundai Canada achieve its goals of tackling underrepresentation of Black and Indigenous individuals in the automotive industry. “Our partnership with Georgian College is an important investment to help form an automotive business community that attracts a pool of talent reflective of Canada’s diversity,” said Romano. The partnership also aligns with Georgian’s mission to increase diversity across the college. To further that goal, Georgian College recently announced that it will be creating a Centre for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion.
The investment builds on an existing partnership between Hyundai Canada and Georgian College that includes Hyundai hiring co-op students and sponsoring and participating in the Georgian Auto Show.
“It is our duty as industry leaders to build a successful path for our future generations in the automotive industry,” Romano said. “Facilitating ways to ensure equal opportunity and equitable representation in the industry is a collective effort, and we are very proud to be part of the solution with Georgian College.”
