Next year, Ms Findlater, who is dealer principal at Southern Automobiles in Invercargill, will travel to Boston to study at Harvard University.
She is this year’s recipient of the Janet Lane MNZM Scholarship, awarded by the Motor Industry Training Organisation (MITO) and the Inspiring Futures Foundation in their annual scholarship awards.
She will complete the Harvard Division of Continuing Education’s certificate of leadership excellence in strategy and innovation, doing three of the required courses online and then heading to Harvard to complete one course on-campus.
Ms Findlater grew up in Edendale and attended Menzies College. She described herself as not the smartest at school, but worked hard, she said.
Her mother said she must do some form of tertiary education so, being a keen sportswoman, she did a diploma in sport and recreation before heading to Melbourne, where she worked as a legal receptionist.
She was about 23 when she could not get a job and realised she did not have a career, so she decided to train as an auto electrician, signing up for a pre-trade course at the Southern Institute of Technology.
She was one of only two women on the course; the rest were mostly 17-year-old lads straight out of school. Ms Findlater went on to be named top student across the automotive school.
From there, she did her apprenticeship with AJ Auto Electrical in Invercargill — an "absolutely fantastic" place to work, she said.
After nearly five years, a job arose at MITO as an industry training adviser, looking after automotive apprentices in the region. At that stage, she was the only female training adviser among the 28 throughout the country.
She was then shoulder-tapped by the Motor Trade Association to be a business manager. She later joined GWD Motor Group as an aftersales development manager and was promoted through that business.
Wanting to do some business study, she enrolled in a diploma of business, then completed a bachelor in applied management degree, majoring in HR management, and recently finished her master’s in applied management.
From GWD, she joined Scania New Zealand as branch manager before the position arose at Southern Automobiles last year.
With few opportunities for such a role in Southland, she was just hoping to get an interview, and was grateful to Ken Cummings — the owner and board chairman of Southern Automobiles — and the board for the opportunity.
She had always been one to embrace change — "if you can see the benefit, see the ‘why’ behind it", she said.
The Janet Lane MNZM Scholarship was awarded to an individual each year to support an intensive and comprehensive course of management and leadership study.
Ms Findlater, who won the Motor Trade Association’s Female Achievement in the Motor Industry Award in 2016, said the opportunity represented a critical step in her academic and professional journey.
The certificate programme would take a year to 18 months to complete and she would begin her studies immediately.
When she started studying for a diploma, she never thought she would end up with a master’s degree. "It’s not limiting yourself, be broad-minded and if you want to dream big, why not?" she said.
Ms Findlater was delighted to see more young women getting into the trades and said there were some good initiatives in the South to encourage that.
