Jordan Workman, an HR Business Partner at Aston Martin Lagonda, has become the inaugural winner of the Bunny Ennis Fund award – a new, annual training bursary to help advance the careers of talented and motivated individuals in the automotive industry.
The fund has been established in memory of Bernard ‘Bunny’ Ennis, the late father of Lynda Ennis, Co-founder and CEO of the global automotive executive search and talent research company, Ennis & Co Group.
Lynda presented Jordan with his prize at the Autocar Drivers of Change awards ceremony in London on Feb 6, which were organised in association with Ennis & Co Group.
Jordan plans to put the grant towards the cost of his ongoing doctoral research degree, which he is currently studying and self-funding alongside his job at Aston Martin.
Competition judges were for looking for individuals who pushed the boundaries in their careers and were particularly impressed by Jordan’s single-minded determination to improve himself through education while working full-time first at Stellantis and then Aston Martin.
He studied for a BA degree at the University of Worcester and MSc at Manchester Metropolitan University before embarking on his doctorate at Teesside University, which is focused on how trusted automotive industry employees feel and how this impacts their performance.
He says his determination to succeed was fuelled by an experience in 2018 when he came close to losing his life in a high-speed motorway collision with a lorry.
In his competition entry, he wrote: “Upon my eventual return to full health, I was determined to carry on with studying alongside full-time work and make the most of life.”
After collecting his award, Jordan said: “When you’ve gone through something like that, it changes your perspective on life. From that moment, it was all about doing something that I enjoy and I would like to thank Ennis & Co for helping me to achieve my goal.”
Lynda said: “Presenting an award in memory of my father has been an emotional experience and I’m delighted that the inaugural prize is going to such a worthy winner.
“There is an uncanny parallel between Jordan and Bunny because my father also narrowly escaped death during World War II when his RAF aircraft was shot down over the Bay of Biscay in 1945, forcing him to eject and parachute into the sea. He suffered broken bones all over his body but somehow managed to inflate a small dinghy before being rescued.
“After the war, he forged a successful career in the automotive industry but remained a very active campaigner and fund-raiser for the military veteran community. We’ve created the Bunny Ennis Fund to recognise that generosity of spirit.
“One of his sayings was ‘there’s no such thing as can’t’, and that phrase is a perfect way to describe Jordan’s determination to advance his career. I wish him every success for the future.
“I would also like to thank everyone who took part in the competition and pay special tribute to our two runners-up, Heidi Wang and Tara Lewis, for their outstanding entries.”
The overall individual Drivers of Change award went to Barbara Bergmeier, a strategic adviser at JLR and, until recently, the company’s Executive Director of Industrial Operations.
Honoured for her tireless efforts to create an inclusive workplace at JLR, she has championed a reverse-mentoring scheme and led the development of a new line of luxury workwear that includes religious headwear and maternity clothes.
She has also supported an innovative menopause policy to provide temperature-regulating workwear, fans, flexible working arrangements and additional breaks for affected women.
The top company award was won by Stellantis for its support of a broad range of diversity, equity and inclusion schemes and its determination to bring about meaningful change.
The Drivers of Change awards celebrate companies and individuals who are making the automotive industry a better place to work. The awards were organised in partnership with Ennis & Co Group and the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), who hosted the ceremony at their London headquarters.
