Lily Ley, VP and CIO of PACCAR Inc, has over 30 years of expertise in technology leadership and management excellence. She is an entrepreneur and a trustworthy partner who can drive success in any global corporate environment. Lily is a Design leader that has strong core beliefs, is always innovating, and is able to operate in a high-pressure atmosphere where quick responses are essential. She is renowned as an inventive leader who oversees projects effectively throughout everyday operations as the head of IT.
PACCAR is a worldwide technological leader in the design, production, and customer support of premium light, medium, and heavy-duty vehicles under the Kenworth, Peterbilt, and DAF nameplates. PACCAR also develops and produces sophisticated diesel engines, offers financial services, information technology, and sells truck components, all of which are connected to its primary business. Each of these vertically integrated companies contributes significantly to PACCAR’s success.
Quality, technology, and innovation are the foundations of PACCAR’s success in delivering great products and services to its clients all over the world. PACCAR’s strong financial performance allows it to invest in new trucks, manufacturing productivity improvements, and engine technologies at all stages of the business cycle. PACCAR Engines, PACCAR Parts, PACCAR Financial, PACCAR Leasing, and Kenworth, Peterbilt, DAF, Dynacraft, PACCAR Winch are all part of the PACCAR brand. It takes 28,000 people to offer the greatest goods and services in the business to customers. For over 116 years, PACCAR’s products and technology have been continually regarded as the finest in the industry.
Journey to Proficiency
Lily is the oldest of five siblings and the first in her family to achieve a Bachelor’s degree (BA / Computer Science Engineer) and a Master’s degree (MBA). Lily’s father was a cab driver and her mother was responsible for all five of her children. Lily was a bit of a math and science nerd as a kid. She was inquisitive, analytical, and able to attend college because of her grandfather who paid her tuition with his pension checks. She recalls, “My main goal was to get a job and help my parents pay our family’s expenses.”
Lily began her career in Mexicali, Mexico, as a Pascal programmer for a small software firm. She started working with Kenworth Mexicana as a Pascal and Cobol developer in 1989 and progressed through jobs with increasing scope and responsibility over the following 17 years, eventually reaching the post of IT Director. PACCAR sent her to the United States in 2006 to work for the Kenworth division in Kirkland, Washington. She has since taken on numerous roles with growing responsibility, including her present job as Vice President and Chief Information Officer of PACCAR. She mentions, “One of the reasons I have been able to succeed is because my family, mentors and sponsors believed in me and encouraged me to take on challenging tasks and try new things.”
Solving Problems by Understanding them Through and Through
Lily is an experienced Technology and IT executive, mentor to aspiring students, and passionate advocate for more inclusive workplaces for women. In her role as Vice President and CIO, she leads the Information Technology division (ITD) and the Global Connected Services organization. She says, “Our main goals are the modernization of IT for the Digital Age and the monetization of services to creating new revenue streams for PACCAR.” She brings a customer-first mindset, a focus on applying innovation to deliver tangible business benefits, and a relentless pursuit of enhanced business efficiencies. She asserts, “I am an analytical decision-maker who carefully reviews data to present a solution or recommendation. But sometimes, depending on the task, you can blend some aspects of both conceptual and behavioral styles.”
While sharing her work experience, Lily recalls that one of the finance companies was struggling with a software solution to start operations in one country as a green-field implementation. After 3 years without any progress, users of the software solution were frustrated and the software was costing the company a lot of money. Lily formed a team to do some research and assess other solutions in the country. She recalls, “While we continued to work towards the approved solution in parallel, we completed our own technical and financial evaluation and presented it to senior management. They were initially skeptical, but after our meeting, the VP of Finance agreed with the recommendation. We terminated the other provider and successfully implemented the solution in a record time of 6 months.”
Responsibilities that Require Complete Focus
Lily evaluates the monthly and quarterly reports as a member of the Operating Committee, where she assesses how the team is performing in each of the organization’s functions. Forecasts on crucial indicators and measures taken to ensure the organization meets its goals are included in these reports. Monthly and quarterly business evaluations from Lily’s teams throughout the world are another source of data for understanding how they’re doing, what’s on their minds, and areas of concern. She says, “This helps me understand their challenges and offer my perspective on potential gaps and roadblocks that could impact their progress on major investments and/or people development.”
Depending on whether she has early meetings with European teams, Lily normally starts work between 7:00 and 7:30 a.m. If there are pressing matters, she takes care of them right away by working with her leadership team. Lily places a high value on customer service and instills this concept in her employees. She then spends time reviewing crucial emails and ensuring she’s on top of any requests or updates before investigating market trends, security statistics, technological advancements, and technology highlights to help establish future plans. Lily is also in charge of working on vital and strategic initiatives as well as responding to calls from both internal and external stakeholders. Her suggestion is to listen to the customer’s voice, understand your company’s future direction and plan, and be actively involved.
Significance of Team Work
All companies succeed or fail through the strength of their people. At PACCAR, the best way to meet or exceed the targets is by maximizing the performance and abilities of each individual.
At PACCAR ITD, the management team plays a critical role in driving employee engagement. Lily describes, “There are many factors involved and sometimes we cannot control all of them.” She also adds that the nature of the work itself, for instance, might not be in line with what a particular individual feels is meaningful to their lives.
Lily and the management team are continually thinking about how they can motivate their colleagues through leading by example, coaching for growth, and recognizing high-potential individuals. For example, the leadership team constantly encourages team members to stand out and establish themselves. Employees feel emboldened to express their thoughts with the correct supervision as a result of this strategy. She opines, “We have developed an environment where people communicate openly and with respect. Driving engagement is a worthy goal in our Division.”
Defining Success
“Sometimes we become so consumed with our future career goals that we forget to celebrate when we achieve our current ones,” says Lily. She also adds that it can lead to feeling burned out or overwhelmed. She measures success by her sense of discipline and inner peace. She also bases this on who she has become as a person instead of looking only at her accomplishments. She asserts, “Success to me means providing support to my family; being a great mom, wife, daughter, sister and good friend; inspiring and supporting others; helping women to achieve their goals; and being happy while accomplishing all the above.”
Risk that Eventually Became Reward
Over the years, Lily frequently challenged the status-quo at great risk. She says, “We invested early in developing an open and flexible environment for our employees to innovate and grow.” She also adds, “We adopted Agile development when Waterfall was still the standard, redesigned our workspaces to be modern, open with lots of meeting space to foster collaboration and teamwork, and we also invested early in platforms driving standardization across a very diverse company.”
Lily mentions that looking back, many of these decisions now seem understandable, but at the time, the outcome was less certain and came with some measure of risk.
Viewing More Growth as a Person and Leader in Future
Lily says she and PACCAR will continue to expand, especially in areas where she is laying the way for the future, such as autonomy, zero-emissions, and connectivity. She has a lot of ambitions for the future. She intends to tenaciously pursue success and will not be deterred by the fear of failure. She says, “My dreams are what keep me going; they are an object for me to strive for. Continue cultivating a positive attitude, work ethic and connections, that I can prove my value and to earn the recognition as a visionary leader in our company.” She also adds, “Therefore, executive courage around action, communication and trust is a critical leadership skill that I will continue to develop.”
‘Like any muscle, the more you flex it, the stronger it becomes.’ Lily envisions herself as a PACCAR leader who can influence, coach and mentor the company’s people with compassion and empathy because employees who feel valued and appreciated by their bosses are more inclined to go above and beyond in their jobs. Lily will also continue to advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion in order to advance gender equality and women’s individual empowerment in their pursuit of professional and personal success.
A Message for All Female Leaders
“As women, we face many challenges,” says Lily. She adds that women want to be 100% perfect in everything they do both personally and professionally. In any organization, women can be found who are strong, smart, and technically competent in comparison to their male counterparts. Lily sees that even if women are making progress, they still face many obstacles and gender bias is the primary one. She says, “Corporate offices are slowly bridging the gender gap, but there is still a lot of work to do.” Another issue is maternity leave. For Lily, it was a big deal back in the mid-90s, especially to understand all of the changes and challenges in her work before and after her daughter was born.
Lily also perceives a shortage of female role models; women just starting out in their professions are searching for women in leadership roles to imitate, but are having difficulty finding examples that are relevant. Women have shown their worth, yet the top tier is still dominated by men. Lily has found the following advice to be the most helpful in her career:
- Pause and reflect to help you find your authentic self and purpose. Once you have it, stay your most authentic self and speak your mind meaning speak clear, strong, and concise, and make sure your voice is heard
- Be passionate and intentional
- Be honest with high integrity
- Show empathy and compassion
- Finally, support and show up more often for one another.
