The Coalition of Minority Professional Engineering Societies (COMPES) held a professional development
conference hosted by Nissan Technical Center on Saturday, April 13, 2013. The theme of the conference
was “Thriving on Diversity”.
Keynote speaker, Carla Bailo, Senior Vice President, Research and Development, Nissan Americas, provided a warm welcome and set the stage for an open and enriched day of learning. Many participants wanted to know her secret of obtaining success as a married female engineer with four children.
Carla states that she expects a lot from her staff as well as her family and believes in the work ethic. Carla provided this advice: “Always challenge the normal way of doing things to open up the door, and debate leads to the best decisions." She encourages her team to talk and feels that diversity can bring about the best ideas because engineering is about creativity.
Nissan utilizes the strength of the global company in a localized way, using technology to the vantage point of having departments spread globally, which gives them presence and better success in the market. Nissan’s Research and Development has resided in Southeast Michigan for more than 20 years in their Farmington Hills location and is the headquarters for the Americas.
The benefits of the COMPES Professional Development Conference are a networking opportunity with an audience of 200 professionals representing various companies and industries, attending breakout sessions on technical and professional development topics, and accessing resources to aid in career planning and development with Kelly Services. The breakout sessions were well-developed and afforded the opportunity of participants to gain insight into maintaining technical strength, soft skill development, and understanding challenges of diversity in the workplace. Initial feedback from the conference attendees was that it was very well organized, highly professional, and very informative/helpful.
The Motivational Speaker, Glenn Carver, Author, Speaker, Ambassador of Attitude, Heat Ventures, LLC touched on the ways in which professionals can thrive in diversity. The Capstone Speaker, Greg Daniels, Senior Vice President Retired, U.S. Manufacturing Nissan North America, recapped the overall theme of the conference and provided participants with words of encouragement.
COMPES PDC includes: National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE), and Society of Women Engineers (SWE). COMPES would like to thank their entire volunteer planning team including chairs: Sena Hermiz, Co-Lead COMPES for SWE, Diana Ortega, Co- Lead COMPES for SHPE, Felicia Ford, Co-Lead COMPES for NSBE, as well as these advisors: Jessica Mattis, Vice President of Professional Development for Society of Women Engineers (SWE) and Dr. Alan Cooper. We would like to thank the corporate sponsors: Platinum—Nissan and Yazaki North and Central America; Gold—Valeo and Chrysler; Silver--Consumers Energy, FANUC Robotics; Bronze--Denso International America, Mahle, General Motors; In-Kind Sponsors Kelly Services and ALC Hosted Telecommunications. The internal Nissan planning team was of great support and contribution to the success of the event, and media sponsor GreeningDetroit contributed to this write-up.
Keynote speaker, Carla Bailo, Senior Vice President, Research and Development, Nissan Americas, provided a warm welcome and set the stage for an open and enriched day of learning. Many participants wanted to know her secret of obtaining success as a married female engineer with four children.
Carla states that she expects a lot from her staff as well as her family and believes in the work ethic. Carla provided this advice: “Always challenge the normal way of doing things to open up the door, and debate leads to the best decisions." She encourages her team to talk and feels that diversity can bring about the best ideas because engineering is about creativity.
Nissan utilizes the strength of the global company in a localized way, using technology to the vantage point of having departments spread globally, which gives them presence and better success in the market. Nissan’s Research and Development has resided in Southeast Michigan for more than 20 years in their Farmington Hills location and is the headquarters for the Americas.
The benefits of the COMPES Professional Development Conference are a networking opportunity with an audience of 200 professionals representing various companies and industries, attending breakout sessions on technical and professional development topics, and accessing resources to aid in career planning and development with Kelly Services. The breakout sessions were well-developed and afforded the opportunity of participants to gain insight into maintaining technical strength, soft skill development, and understanding challenges of diversity in the workplace. Initial feedback from the conference attendees was that it was very well organized, highly professional, and very informative/helpful.
The Motivational Speaker, Glenn Carver, Author, Speaker, Ambassador of Attitude, Heat Ventures, LLC touched on the ways in which professionals can thrive in diversity. The Capstone Speaker, Greg Daniels, Senior Vice President Retired, U.S. Manufacturing Nissan North America, recapped the overall theme of the conference and provided participants with words of encouragement.
COMPES PDC includes: National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE), and Society of Women Engineers (SWE). COMPES would like to thank their entire volunteer planning team including chairs: Sena Hermiz, Co-Lead COMPES for SWE, Diana Ortega, Co- Lead COMPES for SHPE, Felicia Ford, Co-Lead COMPES for NSBE, as well as these advisors: Jessica Mattis, Vice President of Professional Development for Society of Women Engineers (SWE) and Dr. Alan Cooper. We would like to thank the corporate sponsors: Platinum—Nissan and Yazaki North and Central America; Gold—Valeo and Chrysler; Silver--Consumers Energy, FANUC Robotics; Bronze--Denso International America, Mahle, General Motors; In-Kind Sponsors Kelly Services and ALC Hosted Telecommunications. The internal Nissan planning team was of great support and contribution to the success of the event, and media sponsor GreeningDetroit contributed to this write-up.
Opportunities to get involve with COMPES abound. You can check out the upcoming events for the three organizations on the right-hand side of this blog.
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