32 ENGINEBUILDERmag.com | AUGUST 2020
D
iana Gill got into the automotive industry a li le bit di erently than most other folks. She wasn’t
born into it. She didn’t follow in her family’s footsteps. She didn’t even grow up with a passion for
cars. Rather, she needed a job and Special Auto Parts was the company that o ered her one.
“A lot of women in this industry are
passionate about vehicles and cars and
maybe their dad got them wrenching
at a young age or maybe they were
in a family business – that wasn’t an
advantage for me,” Gill says. “But you
learn as you go.”
Diana attended college with the
objective of becoming a school teacher.
When only part time and substitute
teaching positions were available after
she graduated, Diana began to look for
other options to tie her over until the
right teaching job rolled around.
“I wanted something full time,” Gill
says. “Specialty Auto Parts was hiring
for customer service. I gured I’ll just
do this for six months until I can getinto teaching full time. It was one of
those things where I just stayed. I really
liked it. I liked the company. I liked the
owner and I moved up.”
Move up she did. Diana has
now been with Specialty Auto Parts
and Proform for 17 years. She went
from customer service to inventory
management to purchasing manager,
and today she is the company’s national
sales manager – a role she assumed four
years ago.
“I have a lot of institutional
knowledge and we’re a pretty tight knit
group,” she says. “We’ve all worked
together a long time within our
company. Everyone in this industry
has a passion for it. ey’re born intoit and their parents had a company
and that’s the path they took to follow
in the family business and stu like
that. It was really, really di erent for
me because I didn’t have a passion for
automotive. I wasn’t into cars, but I do
enjoy the job. I think it’s a perfect t for
me and my personality.
“I’m proud to be a woman in the
industry because it is male dominated.
I think you de nitely need a strong
personality and you need to be able to
dish it out and you’ve got to take it too.
For me personally, it’s been a really good
experience.”
Having had the experience of
di erent roles within Specialty Auto
Parts has helped Diana truly grasp what
the automotive industry is all about,
and how large it actually is.
“What helped me was having that
institutional knowledge in the o ce
for so many years,” she says. “Listening
to my tech guys on the phone about
product and even my role in purchasing
and knowing what products sell and
what don’t sell has helped. When I got
the national sales manager role, it was
totally di erent than what I was used to
in the o ce. It’s been a good learning
experience and I’ve learned a lot.”
Despite the current pandemic
changing many aspects of the industry
in 2020, Diana says Specialty Auto
Parts has remained busy.
“I think a lot of our end users
are staying home and they’ve been
working on their hobbies or xing up
their project cars,” she says. “We’ve
been really fortunate this year to stay
as busy as we have been. We have had
a lot of exciting new products come
out this year. We’re a Chevrolet, Ford
and Mopar licensee. Our newest line
has been the Mopar stu and we’ll be
coming out with some more engine
building tools as well.”
In all, Proform has 1,000 SKUs
across roughly 15 product categories. EBDIANA GILL
NATIONAL SALES MANAGER, SPECIALTY AUTO PARTS | PROFORM
23-32 eb.aug20 Women in the Industry.indd 32 8/7/20 8:29 AM
Naresh Jariwala