In celebration of this year’s International Women’s Day (IWD), we sat down with three women from across the company to talk about what it really means to thrive as a woman in the EV industry. Their stories are different, but the thread running through all of them is the same: when you give, you gain.
There’s something quietly radical about working in an industry that didn’t exist in its current form twenty years ago. The EV sector is young, fast-moving and still writing its own rulebook. This means it’s also an industry where the culture, the teams and even the future, are genuinely still up for grabs.
At GRIDSERVE, we’re building the charging infrastructure that makes EV adoption possible for everyone. We’re a STEM business, a tech business and very much a people business. This International Women’s Day, we want to celebrate the women helping shape all three of those things.
This year’s IWD theme is ‘Give to Gain’, the idea being that investing in others, sharing what you know, and lifting people around you is what ultimately moves everyone forward. We spoke to three women at GRIDSERVE about what that means to them. They all work in different departments, at different levels, they’ve had very different journeys, but they were all kind enough to bring their whole selves to this conversation.
“Being yourself and working hard really does pay off”
Amy, our Marketing Co-ordinator, is still relatively early on in her career. She recently made the leap between departments, moving from a front-of-house role at Braintree Electric Forecourt into the marketing team. Along the way, she won a ‘Rising Star’ award at 2025’s internal “Amp’d Awards”. For Amy, ‘Give to Gain’ is personal.
“It’s about showing up as your authentic self,” she says. Amy has been open about her ADHD diagnosis at work, something that means she thinks and approaches problems a little differently. Rather than feeling like she had to mask it, she found herself supported to lean into it. “Instead of feeling like I had to hide, I’ve been supported to embrace it. Winning that Rising Star award felt like real proof that being yourself and working hard with passion really does pay off.”
Her approach to lifting others up doesn’t require a fancy office or a senior title. “You don’t have to be senior to make a difference,” she says. “I’m intentional about creating space for others: making sure everyone is heard, backing someone’s idea in a meeting, or just encouraging them to go for something they’re unsure about. Those small moments matter.”
Working in a male-dominated industry has had its challenges too. Amy has noticed how, when working at the Braintree Electric Forecourt, technical questions are sometimes more readily directed towards male colleagues, an experience that’s frustratingly common for women in STEM. But rather than let it diminish her, it pushed her further forward. “Those experiences made me really know my subject matter inside and out. They gave me the confidence to own my space and communicate with clarity, reshaping perceptions one conversation at a time.”
“Representation must start somewhere”
Kirsty is our Head of Customer Experience and came into the EV and STEM-adjacent world without a technical background. What she brought instead was curiosity, emotional intelligence and a fierce commitment to honesty about what she didn’t know.
“I’ve had to become very comfortable being honest about what I don’t know,” she says. “Over the past year, I’ve asked every question I could and taken every opportunity to learn from the talented people around me.” Far from holding her back, that openness became one of her greatest strengths, shaping how she leads. “I try to model curiosity, openness, and the idea that learning isn’t a weakness. It’s a strength.”
For Kirsty, ‘Give to Gain’ is about the everyday acts of investment that add up over time. She’s experienced it through the leaders who’ve given her space to grow, including colleagues who probe with questions that “open up her thinking” rather than just handing her answers. She’s taken that approach and made it her own.
As a leader, she’s intentional about making sure her team members get visibility for their own work, not just by championing them in the background, but by actively coaching them to show up in rooms with senior leaders and be heard. “Instead of presenting on their behalf, I want them to be the ones speaking, sharing their insights and being seen. When someone realises the strength of their own voice and you know you played even a small part in that journey, it’s one of the best parts of leadership.”
She’s also candid about the moments that took effort to build: learning to speak up and make her voice heard didn’t come naturally early in her career. “Not everyone gets the encouragement or confidence to build that muscle, that’s something I’m very conscious of for the women around me.”
“Diverse teams are the best teams”
Helene is our Chief HR Officer and she’s been in STEM since the early 2000s, a time that, she says jokingly, “saying it out loud makes me feel old.” When she entered her first senior leadership role in the sector, she was the only woman in the room.
“Being the only one makes you very aware of your presence,” she reflects. “But I’ve always believed that representation must start somewhere.” Those experiences didn’t shrink her, they sharpened her focus. “Even when things felt challenging, I tried to focus on the bigger picture and the possibilities ahead. Those experiences actually made me more determined.”
Her belief in ‘Give to Gain’ runs deep and it’s rooted in her own experience of being supported. Having worked at General Electric, where mentorship was embedded in the culture, she had the chance to learn from mentors of different backgrounds and experiences. One of the most influential was leadership expert René Carayol, whose perspective shaped how she thinks about leadership and inclusion. “When people invest in others and share what they know, everyone benefits, that’s something I try to pass on wherever I can.”
That commitment shows up in practice. She speaks about a recent moment where a female member of staff from GRIDSERVE’s forecourt leadership team transitioned into a role in HR, something they’d been passionate about for a long time. “I wouldn’t take any credit for that transition, but I hope the support I offered helped her feel confident enough to take that step and recognise what she was capable of achieving.”
Helene is also clear-eyed about the work that still lies ahead. When GRIDSERVE recently reviewed its applicant data, one of the challenges was that we were simply not attracting as many female applicants as we’d like. “That means we need to do more to showcase the opportunities available and highlight the incredible female talent already working in the industry.”
So, what does the EV industry gain when more women join?
All three women came back to this question differently. Together, their answers paint a fuller picture.
Amy’s message is simple and direct: “The EV industry is innovative and future-focused. It needs diverse thinking to keep moving forward. EVs are for everyone, so there’s space for you.”
Kirsty adds something important for anyone who might be hesitating because they don’t have an engineering or technical background: “You don’t need to have a STEM background or be technical from day one, I certainly wasn’t. What matters is curiosity, willingness to learn, and the confidence to ask questions.” She also makes the point that the skills women often bring naturally – empathy, strong communication, collaboration, and a genuine understanding of people – are exactly what a customer-facing, innovation-driven industry needs. “Representation matters. Having more women visible in these spaces helps others see that they belong here.”
Helene frames it as a business necessity as much as a values question: “Diverse teams are the best teams. Different perspectives, experiences, and ideas lead to better decisions and stronger innovation and that’s especially important in a fast-moving industry like EV.”
What they want to see next
All three women want to see the pipeline for women in this industry start much, much earlier.
There’s a shared conviction that early careers programmes, apprenticeships, and school outreach aren’t just nice-to-haves. They’re the mechanism by which the next generation of women will see themselves reflected in the industry and believe they belong there. “Young women need to see, from the earliest opportunity, that these roles aren’t ‘jobs for men’, they’re simply jobs for people,” says Kirsty.
Helene echoes this, pointing to her previous work with initiatives like 10,000 Black Interns, LGBTQ+ talent programmes, and a recent GRIDSERVE work placement through GoodWork, a charity supporting young people from lower socio-economic backgrounds. “The key is being intentional. If we want to build a truly diverse pipeline of future leaders, we need to actively create those pathways.”
Amy’s ask is straightforward: more visible female role models in technical and leadership positions, as well as a culture that stays open to different ways of thinking and working. “When people feel safe to be themselves, they do their best work. That’s how we move both careers and the industry forward.”
Giving forward
What strikes us most about these three conversations is how consistent the underlying idea is, even across different career stages and life experiences. Whether you’re early in your journey or decades in, whether you arrived here with a technical background or found your way in from somewhere else entirely, giving your time, your honesty, your encouragement and your belief in other people creates something that compounds.
That’s what ‘Give to Gain’ looks like in practice. Not necessarily grand gestures but backing someone’s idea in a meeting. Asking the question you’re afraid looks uninformed. Coaching someone before they walk into a room with a member of the executive team. Making sure a young woman can see a door that’s open for her.
The EV revolution is about more than charging cars. It’s about building infrastructure for a better future and the people building it matter just as much as the technology. This International Women’s Day, we’re proud to celebrate the women at GRIDSERVE who are doing both.
