In the Driving Seat: Susan Butters, Project Manager, Autohub, Northwest Automotive Alliance

22nd June 12

Here’s your chance to find out more about Susan Butters, the NAA’s new Autohub Project Manager – for instance, she once played Rita in Willy Russell’s ‘Educating Rita’, and she’ll watch any film as long as it has George Clooney in it.

Name
Susan Butters

Company
Northwest Automotive Alliance

Position
Project Manager, Autohub

Apart from that
I spent several years with the North West Regional Development Agency managing inward investment programmes and subsequently spent 5 years working in skills development, including over 3 years as a Business Partner with Semta, the Sector Skills Council for Science, Engineering and Manufacturing Technologies.

Personal
This year I will celebrate 25 years of marriage to my husband, Peter. My hobbies include walking, going to concerts and the theatre and I have even been known to ‘tread the boards’ myself in amateur productions. My biggest role to date was playing Rita in Willy Russell’s ‘Educating Rita’.

Favourite football team
As I grew up surrounded by cricket and Rugby Union, I don’t really follow football.

Musical performer
I don’t have a particular favourite but put my iPod on to shuffle and you could get anything from Ray Charles to the Charlatans and Nat King Cole to the Kings of Leon.

Movie
Anything with George Clooney in it.

Books
Harper Lee’s ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’. I fell in love with this book when I studied it for my English Literature O-Level and have lost count of the number of times I have read it since.

Best motoring moment
Making the steep descent from the Cedar Mesa in Utah down the Moki Dugway, a single track road with a series of sharp hairpin bends and stunning views of the Valley of the Gods below (although I was more concerned with keeping the car on the road than admiring the view).

Best business advice you’ve ever received?
“The best managers are those who listen”. A useful piece of advice, however I think Donald Trump improved this old adage when he said “Look, listen, learn. You can’t know everything”.