2020 Honoree

“Grow where you’re planted.” That’s the advice Jennifer Gibson often shares with women in the automotive aftermarket. Your current role might not be the ideal fit. But if you excel in that role – or grow where you’re planted, as the analogy goes – you can open the door for other opportunities.

“People don’t transplant dead plants,” Gibson says. “They transplant good plants – plants that have outgrown where they’re at.”

Gibson has put her roots down in North Carolina, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in motorsports management – the first program of its kind – from Belmont Abbey College. Through the program, she landed a three-month internship at what was then Affinia Group/WIX Filters in nearby Gastonia. Soon after Gibson completed the internship, the company hired her for a position in product development, and she’s been working her way up the ladder ever since.

In May 2016, MANN+HUMMEL acquired Affinia Group. Since January 2019, Gibson has served as MANN+HUMMEL’s key account manager for O’Reilly Auto Parts.

As much as Gibson has accomplished professionally, she says her greatest achievement is being a wife and a mother to five kids.

“Even with a lot on my plate, I’ve been able to focus and keep moving forward,” Gibson says.