40 Under 40

When a friend suggested Tristan Topps apply for a job at Penske Automotive Group's Lexus of Chandler, the former Ms. Arizona and Ms. United States pageant winner said her first reaction was, "I don't want to sell cars."

But when Topps learned the job was at the Arizona store's business development center, she had a change of heart, and started fielding Internet sales leads there. While working full time, Topps earned a master's of professional studies in strategic public relations from George Washington University online. Then she moved from the business development center to become a human resources administrator, and that's where she found her niche.

"It gave me more face-to-face engagement with employees and it centered more [on] problem solving," Topps said.

She earned the Society for Human Resource Management's HR certification and was named human resource manager for Penske's North Phoenix/Scottsdale market. In this role, which she still has, Topps became an active responder to the needs of workers.

During the pandemic, when Penske's Arizona employees said they wanted a better work-life balance, Topps and the group's senior leaders endeavored to allow workers to take penalty-free time off to care for themselves and their families.

Since then, Topps has helped to by working with the group's human resources leaders in Arizona and at Penske's corporate headquarters to increase the entry-level minimum wage.

Through Topps' efforts and those of others, Penske Arizona employees, based on tenure, can cash out up to a week of vacation and roll over up to a week of paid time off into the next year for a five-week maximum. The maximum yearly vacation time previously was three weeks, with no options to cash out or roll days over. The new program launched in January 2022.

Topps' work helped lower her market's 2022 employee turnover rate to 20 percent, from 22 percent in 2021.

When employees last year said they felt disconnected from the market at large, Topps used her undergraduate broadcast journalism training to launch a quarterly employee newsletter covering work and personal news. Her market has 11 dealerships and a business office.

Outside of work, Topps skis, travels and is a volunteer leader for the Phoenix chapter of Links Inc., a global nonprofit supporting education, cultural enrichment and civic engagement for the Black community.

"It comes to people," Topps said, "and it comes to giving back."

— Gail Kachadourian Howe