Feature

7 Mar 2025

International Women's Day: Key takeaways from our fireside chat with Arm

As part of our International Women's Day celebrations, Aston Martin Aramco Formula One Team and Arm joined together for an insightful discussion on the importance of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).

In a panel discussion hosted at AMR Technology Campus, Aston Martin Aramco CEO & Team Principal Andy Cowell, Driver Ambassador & Head of F1 Academy Jessica Hawkins and Arm Senior Vice President and Chief DEI Officer Tamika Curry Smith shared their unique perspectives ahead of International Women's Day.

Earlier this year, we announced our landmark partnership with Arm. Bringing together the shared goals and ethos of both organisations, we're committed to making meaningful change and advancing equity, and as a result, we launched a new mentorship programme as part of our International Women's Day celebrations.

Through our programme, we aim to bring people together to promote the sharing of knowledge and learning, with the purpose of advancing our workplaces, increasing allyship and supporting people in finding their voices.

We were also joined by Dr Anne-Marie Imafidon MBE for a fascinating keynote speech on the attributes women bring to organisations and to being leaders.

The event led to a range of thought-provoking insights on the topics of mentorship, leadership and learning. Here are the key takeaways...

Integrating DEI into every aspect of an organisation

Andy Cowell: "The core of what we're doing here at Aston Martin Aramco is competitive ingenuity, and it's about developing quicker than our opponent. Having a positive, inclusive environment where everybody can contribute and everybody can join in is key to fast development. Nobody's shut down in a discussion about creating a new part of a race car or solving a problem. Moving forward is so important. It's at the heart of what we're doing."

Tamika Curry Smith: "There are three core values to Arm's work: integration, shared ownership and accountability. Integration means that Arm has a goal to truly integrate DEI into everything that we do as an organisation, into our policies, our processes and our systems.

"When it comes to shared ownership, we have a group of ambassadors called ARM United who help bring our work to life across the company.

"For accountability, at the beginning of the year, everyone at Arm sets a DEI angle or goal. This has been really profound in normalising DEI as a project and as an expectation. We all approach work with a 'One Arm' mindset, recognising that we're all in this together.

"When we think about what success looks like within Arm, it is both qualitative as well as quantitative. We hear from our employees that it feels different and feels more inclusive. We also have data from our employee engagement survey that shows that we are over 85 per cent plus on all of our DEI index questions about diverse ideas, perspectives, inclusive environments and equal opportunities."

Turning shared values into shared impact

Tamika Curry Smith: "The alignment when Arm and Aston Martin Aramco met was crystal clear. We have shared values. We want to make shared impact.

"I'm excited to share that, together, we're launching a mentorship programme. It'll start this year, beginning with ten Arm mentors who will be matched with ten Aston Martin Aramco mentees, and we will flip that towards the end of the year and expand it.

"Ultimately, by the end of the year, we'll have 40 people participating in the programme. We're really excited about the potential of bringing these mentors and mentees together to learn and grow."

Andy Cowell: "Our partnership is unique in the way we're using it to support inclusion, equality and improvement. Our mentor programme will be a great way to encourage this improvement and growth, particularly when passing on advice from experienced people who have been through it themselves and who have seen the challenges of growing a career. It gives an opportunity to provide people with strong allies, and I can't wait to see how the programme develops and evolves with time."

Jessica Hawkins: "It became obvious when I first met with Arm that we aligned on our views, ethos and what we want to do in the future. But as much as Aston Martin Aramco and Arm are similar and share values, we're also very different in other ways. By coming together through the programme, we're bringing different perspectives together, meaning everyone has the opportunity to learn. Not only can a mentee learn from a mentor, but also vice versa."

The importance of allyship and mentorship

Jessica Hawkins: "This is my fifth year with the team. My role has grown so hugely since being here. I came in feeling almost out of my depth, but I've been given the tools that I needed. I've grown a lot, and I wouldn't have been able to do that without great leadership and mentorship. Now, I look after our F1 Academy programme. And in terms of my racing, I gain mentorship from both Aston Martin Aramco and Arm. I wouldn't have been able to flourish if it wasn't for the mentorship I've had previously and I will have moving forward."

Paying mentorship forward

Jessica Hawkins: "F1 Academy is something that we're very passionate about here at Aston Martin. Our young driver, Tina Hausmann, has an incredible career ahead of her and a very wise head on her shoulders. She's incredible.

"F1 Academy drivers stay in the championship for two years before taking the next step in their career. My role in the two years that each driver is with me is to develop their talent as much as I can and help them learn as much as possible. It's about preparing them so that, when they leave us at the end of the two years, they're much more well-rounded, not only from the driving perspective, but we also provide access to departments such as commercial, marketing and all different areas of motorsport."

Tamika Curry Smith: "I've been doing DEI work for almost 25 years in a variety of organisations. This work is not just my passion but my purpose. When I reflect on International Women's Day and why we're all here, without a doubt, I wouldn't be sitting here right now if it wasn't for all of the mentors and allies who helped me throughout my career, from starting my career in accounting to shifting to management consulting and ultimately to completely changing my career path by doing DEI work.

"Jessica's story was a catalyst for Arm to think about what we could do more collectively around mentorship. Mentoring is about coaching and connecting, not just with each other but in terms of connecting each other to various networks that can help them learn and grow and strive. It's a way to amplify the focus on accelerating women and driving collective impact between both organisations. So, we're thrilled to get that started with our programme this year."

Having a growth mindset is key

Dr Anne-Marie Imafidon MBE: "It's important that when you build yourself and your career, you have a growth mindset. That means going outside your comfort zone to learn new things about different types of people. It means knowing that you want to know more this week than you knew last week, more next month than you knew last month, and more this year than you knew last year. It's about having a direction of continuous travel, rather than saying there's a destination."

The benefits of inclusivity

Tamika Curry Smith: "When I think about what DEI means and the importance of it, it's really clear. It's critical to build the pipeline of women and people from different backgrounds, internally and externally. The data and research is clear that DEI truly is a business imperative. Organisations that focus on DEI, that have more diverse teams and inclusive cultures, drive more creativity and innovation. They have better financial results. They have more productivity and high performance. That's really what DEI at Arm is about."

Andy Cowell: "Engineering is about innovation. It's about having creativity, using that creativity and figuring out how to turn ideas into reality. When you have inclusivity, that will ultimately help to develop the race car, because innovation is amplified by having strong, diverse groups of people thinking in open environments and learning.

"In the future, it would be great if there were equal men and women throughout F1. It'd be great to see a woman driving and competing. We're not there yet, but it's good to talk about it and discuss what's needed. That's where having a strong mentor system and having allies to support and provide opportunities is so important."

Failing is OK, and it's important

Dr Anne-Marie Imafidon MBE: "It can be hard to fail to make mistakes, but if you're wanting to make mistakes, it can serve you well, because there's a higher quality of learning that you're able to make that then becomes shared knowledge that you can share across your community, share across your team, and subsequently share with the world through the innovative work that you're doing."

Andy Cowell: "Tough challenges involve getting over hurdles. Now and again, we trip. It's so important to have an environment where there's no blame, it's just about learning."

Take a look at our International Women's Day celebrations in the video below.

Find your voice

Celebrating International Women's Day

Learn more about our International Women's Day event, where Aston Martin Aramco and Arm came together to explore the importance diversity, equality and inclusion.

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International Women's Day: Key takeaways from our fireside chat with Arm