Brandy Goolsby (pictured below) is active in the professional women’s alliance InForum where she serves as Executive Committee Member for the AutomotiveNEXT Industry Group. She also serves on the Connected Vehicle Systems Alliance (COVESA) board in two elected roles, Treasurer and Marketing Lead. Before Wind River, she held roles at Ford, Stellantis, and General Motors. She has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering.
Goolsby was interviewed by Caroline Hicks, Director-Events & Community, Automotive, Informa Tech Automotive Group. (This interview has been edited for length).
Informa Tech: Some who work in automotive say they had a love for cars at an early age and getting into the industry was always a goal. Was automotive something you aimed for as a child?
Goolsby: Initially, no. I had relatives and family friends that worked in the industry, but I was looking to start my career outside of automotive. But interestingly, automotive was the building block that developed my knowledge and career. It gave me my start and helped me to understand different career paths that you could take within the industry.
Informa Tech: You chose electrical engineering for your degrees; how did you get to that decision?
Goolsby: I have two older sisters I love dearly; my middle sister Kelly was my biggest cheerleader. She was the catalyst that ignited the fire and my interest in engineering. But what cultivated that interest most was the Detroit area’s youth engineering programs. I participated in Wayne State's math camp and a Detroit-area pre-college engineering program.
What was instrumental about those events was they trained me to understand how to apply math and science. I was able to see how inanimate objects could come to life. That illuminated a new world for me. It really ignited the creativity, insight, and understanding you can gain from engineering and I wanted to unlock and cultivate that in a collegiate setting. Those opportunities were what really got me on the path to electrical engineering.
Informa Tech: It's good to hear those programs make that kind of difference. When doing your master's degree and looking for roles, what about General Motors made you think that was where you wanted to get your start?
Goolsby: At the time, General Motors, like other automotive companies, felt to be an innovator on many levels. The vehicle itself is a technology innovation platform. There's so much you can do with the vehicle, especially now. So, what drew me to General Motors was the product and the opportunity.
As a recent graduate from Michigan State with my master's in electrical engineering, I took coursework in controls and systems engineering.
But I still had a vast umbrella of skill sets in the electrical engineering realm. I wanted to hone in on that potential. General Motors offered a graduate training program that allowed you to rotate into different functional areas under engineering. I went from electrical design to vehicle test systems, where I worked on systems that tested the product. I didn't directly work on the product, but the systems that were confirming that these vehicles were, in fact, roadworthy. It was incredible; I had such a good time there. My last assignment at General Motors was in software & controls, and it was fascinating to get into software.
Informa Tech: Would it be fair to say you've not moved away from engineering but now have a more strategic role? I imagine with engineering there are different pathways. You can go very much into the technical side of things or apply what you know in a strategic setting. But perhaps there aren't that many roles where you do both?
Goolsby: You're exactly right. I'm at Wind River, a technology-based company, which means figuring out how to create an experience that surprises and delights consumers, getting into that detail and the business equation. It also means understanding the market equation of how you build something compelling to help drive business and revenue growth. I wanted to be more on the business side up front and understand more of that aspect. That’s the beauty of the industry. You can identify your path.
Informa Tech: What advice would you give to a young person considering a career in the automotive industry’s STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math)?
Goolsby: I would advise that from an automotive perspective, there are many exciting things to be a part of. You definitely can be part of a solution. You have to consider your skills, talents, resources, and interests. Where do you fit in terms of being part of this solution? Within the automotive industry right now, there's a lot of disruption across the board, from lean manufacturing to managing the complexity of the supply chain. Now you have this next layer, which is about connectivity, autonomous driving, and electrification. This is an exciting time to be part of those solutions.
To successfully navigate your career path in that space, you have to think about what you want to achieve and what impact you want to have. I recommend creating a career map. Establish three-, five- and 10-year goals. Then identify what skills and experiences you need to get to where you are seeing yourself. Then identify what the gaps are. How do you build the right experiences? You'll need, what I call, a board of advisors to counsel and share their wisdom throughout your journey. I have a board of advisors that are on speed dial. I use them consistently to bounce off ideas and help me see where to steer next.
Informa Tech: It sounds like you've successfully owned your own development. We were talking before about the fact you have to be responsible for your development, and you're the only person who is going to hold yourself back in lots of situations. At the same time, having a network of mentors who you can bounce ideas off is incredibly valuable in terms of you being an African American woman working in engineering and automotive. It's not the most diverse industry in the world. It appears to be getting better, but how has your experience been from that perspective?
Goolsby: One of the things I constantly think about is that you have to not think about the fact you are a black woman – because that will become very isolating. The numbers are improving, but it’s still very few and far between. You will often still be the only black woman in the room, but that’s okay. That’s a part of how you grow your resiliency by not allowing your culture or gender to be the priority. Instead, you’re bringing diversity to the table: A view or perspective to help with innovation. I think it’s about accepting yourself for who you are and then using that to your advantage. Rather than seeing it as a negative, it can make a difference. It's like a USP (Unique Selling Point). You have to see it as positive.
Informa Tech: Your position at Wind River is centered around collaboration and alliances. You connect people to accelerate progress. What advice do you have for others about how to collaborate effectively within automotive?
Goolsby: I think it's something we see a lot when we’re doing our event research. Automotive needs to collaborate more. There would be more progress if people were more open. It feels like a huge priority for the industry as a whole.
Informa Tech: How have you gone about doing that at Wind River?
Goolsby: When I first joined Wind River, my role was ecosystem and market development. That’s where I started to apply solutions thinking. In doing solutions thinking, you take our foundational software technology offering and then identify how you make it or augment it with other technologies in the automotive ecosystem. So, I was working to determine how you create that one-plus-one-equals-three effect and how you create realized customer value.
To do that, you need to collaborate internally and externally with the organization. Driving close communication with engineering, product management, marketing, and partner companies to tell a compelling story regarding how the solution shows up at trade shows, events, and most importantly, in front of the customer.
Informa Tech: You have worked across medical, telco, and industrial manufacturing at Wind River. How does automotive compare with these other industries?
Goolsby: Everybody is being disrupted as far as software and digital. The value that’s going to be realized by these industries is going to be software-defined. The value is going to come straight from the software. What's beautiful about my experience today is that having started off in automotive, it was easy for me to take that software knowledge and spread it and scale it across all these other industries, such as the telco space as well as energy and others you mentioned. I also was given the opportunity to work in marketing. So now I get to tell the compelling story, positioning customer solutions in a way that resonates with them, meeting them in their journey to help drive traffic, and being aware of the value of all these different types of technologies.
Informa Tech: You have quite a unique skill set. Not many people can take something that is very technical and then translate it so it can be understood by those who aren’t in that space every day. As a student studying engineering, did you always know that was where you wanted to take your career?
Goolsby: I knew I wanted to work with the bigger picture. There’s nothing wrong with engineering or being technically strong. But I knew I wanted to be more upfront business side. And I also knew I needed an in-depth understanding of all the details and how these elements come together in order to translate them well.
Informa Tech: Was this a skill that was talked about in college, or was it something you have honed throughout your career?
Goolsby: I have known from early on I’m an extrovert. I knew I wanted to be on the customer-facing side. I also understood there was a level of depth I needed to know in the fundamentals of tech. Not all the technical details, but I needed to understand enough to speak to it. It's not a skill set you can study but a soft skill you develop as you navigate your experiences.
Informa Tech: In your professional career so far, what do you enjoy most about working in automotive?
Goolsby: What I enjoy most about working across automotive and other industries is talking about what’s real and how we can collaborate, whether talking to a technology provider or a customer sharing a business issue or challenge with me. I constantly think during those conversations about how what they describe could fit into the strategy. But of course, I need to go through the vision map (and) identify what the right play is for them in terms of building a solution that fits their business.
