Benedicte Engel - Denmark
In 2015 Benedicte Engel founded Kvindernes Bilmagasin, an online news media outlet about cars communicated specifically to women. From the beginning it published car reviews and the latest news from the automotive world and in particular the ‘green transition’. Besides that, she runs the Female Drivers Club, which is a Business Network for women in the car industry. In Denmark there is just one female employee out of every 10 workers in the automotive world.
Benedicte Engel grew up in a family where motorsport has been present for four generations. Her great-grandfather started the importation of Benz in Denmark at the beginning of the 19th century and he was the first to build a car shop with an electric car elevator in Copenhagen. Her grandfather was a Volvo dealer in the 1960-1970s for many years and her father took over that business in 1970-1980s. “I have always been a huge car geek. I played more with cars than dolls when I was a little girl”, says Benedicte Engel.
She was educated as a sales consultant for Mercedes-Benz and sold cars for six years in a car dealership. Here she found how female customers were overlooked and misunderstood. “I discovered when a couple came into the shop, my colleagues only spoke to the man even though it was the wife they were buying a new car for”, she explains.
From then, Benedicte Engel has fought to increase the visibility of women in the car industry. This, and her excellent professional career, is why WWCOTY has decide to call her to its ranks. “I have followed WWCOTY since its beginning and it has always been a dream for me to be a part of the jury”.