This Friday 8 March marks International Women’s Day. To celebrate, we’re profiling the career paths of three inspirational women who work in different roles in businesses at Silverstone Park.
We begin with Caroline Herman, Director of HR (human resources) at Lunaz Group.The company is redefining a segment in the automotive industry by bringing to market the UEV (upcycled electric vehicle) by applying its battery-powered technology to both classic cars and commercial vehicles.
Caroline’s job is fast paced and dynamic. Lunaz Group was a start-up company two years ago, with 90 employees – today it is classified as a scale-up with more than 170 staff and ambitions to double the workforce again come 2026.
“I’ve been in HR for 30 years and continue to be as absorbed into my profession as I always have been.
“I have always passionately believed that people power a business – never more so than at Lunaz.”
Caroline juggles her immersive role with being a mum to four sons, as well as being a keen runner. In fact she completed her latest marathon just 11 seconds short of her target of four hours and 30 minutes. “That’ll teach me to stop and take a selfie!”
She continues: “Like many careers, particularly as a woman when you have to be agile in thinking and reacting – and especially when planning and juggling a family – my career path has had a few twists and turns.”
University led to Sainsbury’s, leading to Cosworth’s road and racing division, amongst others. Adapting to new environments at home and work, Caroline credits grit, determination and a supportive company for what her employee value proposition is aiming to be at Lunaz.
“Having worked with established market-leading brands in their field, and experience what it was like to be a female employee and also to set policies for all employees, one of the attractions of Lunaz was that it was only three years old when I joined.
“The company has a mission statement of disrupting the auto industry which is exciting.
“Joining a fresh company that wants to change, make and forge a new path in every sense has enabled me to draw on my years of experience to bring the good and learn from the not-so-good.”
“Like the company itself, I had a blank sheet of paper to work with in bringing the very best of what I have known and merging that with the unknown to create something that I can be proud of for many years to come.
“Maybe I’ll even leave a bit of a legacy that will establish best practise for the next generation of HR professionals.”
Lunaz’s type of work – upcycling products to give them new leases of life – calls for a diverse workforce. It is Caroline’s job to direct not only the recruitment process but the entire employee lifecycle – literally from ‘hire to retire’.
“In a nutshell, I’m responsible for determining the strategic direction of our ‘people strategy’ and everything that falls underneath that, ensuring all our employees are looked after.
“This can be the initial attraction to the business, the recruitment process and then their employment journey with us, whether they leave, retire or choose to come back to us. It’s about making it as engaging, collaborative and progressive for both parties as it can possibly be.
“I feel strongly about the messaging from Lunaz – that we are a business that genuinely thinks ‘generations’, not genders.
“It is imperative that we build a world class incubator of skills through graduate programmes and apprenticeships to meet our global aspiration.”
