The 37th Annual BEYA STEM Conference will take place Thursday, February 9-11, 2023 at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in Washington D.C. This week, BEYA kicked off the countdown to its annual science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) conference with a BEYA-themed video. Follow us on YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram, and subscribe to our newsletter to get the latest news and updates.

In the summer of 1991, BEYA winner Olabisi Boyle started her career at IBM Global Services as a senior associate engineer, She spent almost three and half years providing technical leadership in the development and implementation of parts, logistics, and systems for IBM Power PC brand. She also developed an automated solution for an order processing function that increased order throughput from 30/week to 90/week.

Later, at Ford Motor Company, she worked as a chassis engineering supervisor for about a year, before being appointed a manager for strategy and business planning, a position she also held for more than three years.

She then joined FCA (Fiat Chrysler Automobiles) as a senior manager in product strategy, features, innovation, and truck product engineering. Boyle had full strategic, operating, and cost responsibility for the daily management of the Aspen/Durango vehicle programs. Some of her accomplishments include achieving consumer reports recommending buying the 2007 Durango, 2008 Durango, and 2008 Aspen.

In March 2008, Boyle was appointed Director of Powertrain Product Engineering. She also served as program management and quality director. In these roles, she provided leadership, oversight, and management of powertrain programs.

During the early aughts (2000-2009), Boyle won several awards in the Career Communications Group (CCG) employee recognition program. In 2005, she was honored as one of the most promising engineers. She was also recognized as a Modern Day Technology Leader at the 2006 BEYA STEM Conference.

Speaking to US Black Engineer magazine in the spring of 2006, Boyle said she always made it a point to accentuate the positive. At the time, she was a senior manager for Dodge SUVs in truck engineering at Daimler Chrysler and was responsible for leading the product team’s business objectives for strategy, budget, timing, and quality.

Her top career tip for young managers: Develop your brand as a leader. “Be the one they know,” she said. “Be the one they can count on. Be the one who is sought out for leadership, influence, knowledge, vision, and energy.”

She also advised new leaders to review their own experiences, and education to see “where you would like to end up in the future and determine what gaps they have. On overcoming obstacles, Boyle said it’s best to remember everybody makes mistakes in their careers, but successful people recover from them. “You become a person of character not just when everything goes well, but how you pick up after things go poorly.”

In 2009, the Black Engineer of the Year – President’s Award went to Boyle. She joined a long list of engineers who have achieved exceptional career gains in lifetime achievements and in pioneering feats.

More recently, Hyundai Motor America announced in 2020 that it is strengthening its leadership team with the addition of Boyle as the vice president of product planning and mobility strategy. Boyle is responsible for guiding the strategic direction of Hyundai’s U.S. vehicle lineup, leading long- and short-range planning, and overseeing market research, business analytics, and pricing.

“Olabisi brings to Hyundai the perfect combination of automotive engineering and product planning experience with an in-depth understanding of the technologies that are going to drive the future of the automotive industry,” said Muñoz. “She has an outstanding track record of evaluating market trends, leading teams, and using her engineering expertise to launch products and services that consumers appreciate and enjoy.”

Boyle joined Hyundai from Visa, where she was most recently the vice president of Connected Commerce, leading the Internet of Things (IoT), Tap-to-Phone, and Cloud payment products.

Prior to her connected commerce position, she was the vice president of IoT and connected car, where she was responsible for expanding Visa’s in-car payment technology. At Chrysler, she was the director of engineering planning and technical cost reduction and prior to that was chief engineer for Chrysler Town & Country and Dodge Grand Caravan Minivans.

Boyle was recently selected to the San Francisco Business Times’ 2020 Most Influential Women in the Bay Area list and was the recipient of the 2018 Women in Payments Innovation Award. She is an advisory board member for the Los Angeles Auto Show (AutoMobility LA) and was elected as co-chair and board member of the Chrysler African American Network. Boyle also served as a board member of the Detroit Area Pre-College Engineering Program (DAPCEP).

Boyle has a Bachelor of Science in industrial engineering from Columbia University, a Bachelor of Science in physics from Fordham University, and a Master of Science in mechanical engineering from Columbia University.