In light of International Women’s Day, we want to honour the women working at Toromont Cat. We proudly count over 508 incredible female employees, including shop technicians, branch managers, sales specialists, senior leaders and board members. Today, we celebrate them and we highlight all of the inspiring women who work in the heavy equipment industry, which still remains a largely male-dominated industry.
We empower women to reach their full potential, we applaud women for their achievements and aspirations, and we uplift women’s growth within the organization as they play a pivotal role in gatekeeping our success. Our motto ‘’Stronger Together’’ has never been so true, as we consistently maximize the collective capabilities of our employees, partners and business units.
We’re proud to showcase six women at Toromont Cat and their achievements and their aspirations, as well as the challenges they themselves face, or observe around them in our dynamic industry. These women are a small representation of the tremendous talent, capability and inspirational leadership that will enable Toromont’s success going forward.
KELSI PETTYPIECE
Licensed Heavy Equipment Technician
Thunder Bay Rebuild Shop, Toromont Cat
Kelsi Pettypiece always enjoyed hands-on work and had originally started the automotive program in College. Halfway through her studies, she had the chance to work on heavy equipment and then realized she had a strong interest in this! Pettypiece changed her program, completed her studies and joined Toromont in 2014.
Over the years, she volunteered a lot of her time for different organizations and events in her hometown and witnessed the positive impact of the projects she was involved with in the community. She thoroughly enjoys learning from, and working collaboratively with other technicians, as well as being able to see things from a different perspective.
“The biggest challenges are not feeling you live up to others’ expectations, or that those expectations are higher because you are female. The biggest win is a sense of accomplishment when you find out you can do something that in your own mind you believed you couldn’t.’’
CARLA MELO
Sales Operations & Asset Manager
Marketing & Sales Operations department, Toromont Cat
Carla Melo is celebrating her 20th anniversary with Toromont! Before joining the team, she was working in Toronto where she discovered an appreciation for logistics in the role she held at that time and, by fluke, a job posting online crossed her screen for the position of backorder expediter at Toromont. Since the job contained a logistics element, she submitted her application and the rest is history! Based in Concord, she manages the team responsible for sourcing and delivering machines and attachments to our customers. In this very dynamic and rapidly changing marketplace, she needs to think creatively, work as a team to overcome challenges, and provide solutions to help meet the demands of our customers.
According to Melo, there is often a misconception that to “fit in”, women should tone down their femininity or ignore the fact that they are female altogether. In fact, adding diversity and different perspectives are what will keep companies moving forward, evolving, and staying competitive.
“The more I learned, the more I wanted to learn and the more I wanted to take on. I am most proud of going out of my comfort zone, taking on challenges and moving my way into more senior positions over the years. In my current position leading a department, I feel a lot of responsibility for the people on my team and the work that we do. It is a privilege that I feel a great sense of gratitude for every day… even on the tough days.’’
JODY MAY
Mining Field Service Supervisor
Toromont Cat
Located in Sudbury, Jody May has been with Toromont for almost five years. She grew up surrounded by boys and men, so it’s not that odd or intimidating for her to be working in our male dominated environment. The rare time that she is reminded that she’s a woman is when she’s singled out during a meeting for an apology because someone drops an F-Bomb or says something derogatory. Having women in the industry forces a new level of professionalism for everyone. ‘’If I can inspire other women to give it a try, then that’s a huge win!’’
May enjoys being able to influence cohesiveness within her team, branch, and customers. While her days are ever changing and just never the same, she does have GREAT moments in her every day routine, whether it be a catch-up call with a field tech, invoicing a big work order, wrapping up a rebuild where everyone was safe and effective, or even just a good engaging conversation with a customer
“I am very proud of my perseverance this past year learning to lead a team of field technicians (all men) during a pandemic. I’m also proud to say that day by day in this role, I’m earning the respect of my peers, my team and our customers.’’
EMILY GRAHAM
Digital Experience Specialist
Corporate (all divisions) and Digital Experience Team, Toromont Cat
Emily Graham didn’t exactly choose this career, it more or less chose her. She knew she was interested in heavy equipment, either operating or repairing machinery sounded like a fun thing to do. Graham went to trade school and had trouble finding anyone to hire her at a shop. At that time, a teacher suggested trying Toromont out and here she is fourteen years later!
“People never assume you are a subject-matter expert; you need to prove it to them. For me, being considered an equal among my male counterparts is a huge win.’’
DOMINIQUE LEMAY
Marketing Program Specialist
Corporate Marketing Department, Toromont Cat
Dominique Lemay joined the company in 2004 as a Truck Engine Technician. She chose Toromont (Hewitt, at the time) because all she wanted was to repair engines and she believed our company to be the first choice, for everything it represents. In her opinion, the biggest challenges of being a woman working in a male-dominated industry are to continually have to prove yourself and feel that you have to double your efforts to gain trust. However, on the other hand, once you gain confidence, when you're "the girl" among the guys, they pay attention to you.
Professional, detailed-oriented, and motivated, Lemay strives to succeed and is not afraid of challenges. As an example, she has returned to university at the age of 40 and delivers strong results while working full-time!
“What I like the most about my role is to know that my contribution brings money to the company through the claims I make. A great day includes great interactions with my colleagues and solutions to support our sales force team.’’
AMANDA PETOSA
IT Helpdesk Supervisor
Toromont Cat
Amanda Petosa is passionate about technology. She’s been with the company for close to seven years now and wanting to help people and make their lives easier using technology is a true motivation for her. Her team navigated through many obstacles in the last year but has always come out on top and stronger than ever! They have accomplished so much with the marrying of two teams into one, all through a pandemic, and while working from home. Resilience and passion best describe how they tackled the challenges and Petosa is very grateful to that!
“There is always a stigma that women need to prove themselves when working in a male-dominated industry; while some might feel this stigma to be true, Toromont and it’s leadership team have never made it feel that way! We are all given equal opportunities within the business and are given the platform to succeed in our current roles and in our future roles.’’