Notable Champions of Diversity

As a child of immigrants, Thomais Zaremba learned early on the importance of DE&I.

“My parents and I immigrated to the U.S. from Greece when I was a little girl,” she said. “My mother and father had limited education so they had a hard time communicating given the language and literacy barriers.”

Zaremba became her parents’ “voice from an early age and this taught me how important it is to champion and celebrate others who may struggle to be heard,” she said

She has continued to be a voice for diversity, equity and inclusion and to lead by example, especially for women in the auto industry.

While working at Ford for almost two decades, Zaremba quickly learned what she called “the rules of the road” in the male-dominated business. But rather than adhere to the rules, Zaremba learned to bend them and in the process became a DE&I advocate at Ford Motor Co. 

“Early on in my career I focused on what was in my control and which rules could and should be broken,” she said. 

For example, Ford at the time had a corporate policy against wearing jeans and Zaremba saw employees leave because of this and other rules.

“I told my team to just wear jeans,” she said. “This may sound frivolous, but these incremental steps did push the boundaries and helped start changes that the team embraced.”

Zaremba also helped change attitudes toward women in the auto industry by putting her family and duties as a mom first.

“If there was an event where my parental responsibility needed to take priority, I would make that public to normalize being a working mom and lead by example,” she said. “If my daughter needed me to get to a dance recital at 3 p.m. I would walk the entire floor to let my team members see me prioritize my family so they knew it was OK to do the same.”

At Google, Zaremba leads sales strategy and client relationships with domestic automakers, working to help the Detroit 3 grow and transform their retail business by using Google’s powerful data analytics. And she continues to champion DE&I values across a Google sales organization of more than 3,000 people. 

Her work led to her nomination as Google’s Diversity Equity & Inclusion Council co-chair for 2022. It also earned her a keynote speaking slot at the 2019 Women in Automotive conference.

“All of these experiences helped form the way I developed as a leader, and I’m excited that so much of the auto industry is and continues to incorporate progressive change,” Zaremba said.

— Doug Newcomb