NASCAR brand manager zooms from airport to racetrack
— -- When Alba Colon checks into her hotel, she immediately turns on the local news to get a lay of the land. "I want to know what's going on in the city," says Colon. "What are the people like here?"
Next morning, it's off to the racetrack.
Colon, 43, is General Motors Racing's Chevrolet program manager for NASCAR's top-tier Sprint Cup Series. As NASCAR's only female brand manager, she oversees engineers who test engines and figure out the designs and tweaks that can shave milliseconds off a driver's time.
Colon is at a racetrack near Miami one day, at a meeting in Charlotte the next. Or she might be in Puerto Rico, where she was raised, recruiting young people to follow her path to General Motors and a career in engineering.
Never mind the speedway. Traveling so much has helped her develop strategies to shave time off her business trips.
"I know where I'm going to park my car so it's straight and simple," says Colon, who lives in Royal Oak, Mich., and flies out of Detroit's airport. "You know all the tricks. You know the people at the counter."
She also knows to make a beeline for the security checkpoint full of corporate trekkers.
"I know they travel a lot and will be going pretty fast," she says, adding that she figures the business queue is the one with few, if any, children.
She makes sure she's dressed professionally but simply on travel days. "By the time I get (to security), all my liquids are out, my jacket is off," she says. "I try not to wear any belts or any complicated jewelry, because I don't want to lose it."
Once past the checkpoint, if there's time, she heads to the Delta Sky Club.
"I will tell you one of the best investments I've made is a membership in the business club at the airport," Colon says. "You never know when a flight's going to be delayed. You have a place where you can go and keep working on your computer and also relax a little bit. And I have loved that."
Colon is on the road more than 190 days a year. "I have been blessed with the opportunity that my work pays me to go and see the world," she says. "I get to experience different things that maybe I would not be doing in a regular job."
Colon once aspired to be an astronaut. She studied engineering at the University of Puerto Rico in Mayaguez. But in 1991, she helped build race cars when she participated in the Formula SAE competition, an automotive design contest for students. Three years later, General Motors offered her a job.
Colon draws heavily on her technical expertise, but as a manager, she also sometimes needs the skills of a diplomat. "I know what the designer is doing, what things we are trying," she says, "plus, I have to sell it to NASCAR."
She shares her enthusiasm for General Motors and engineering when she speaks to students at her alma mater and recruits for the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers. "We went through bankruptcy, and that was a tough period to sell the company," Colon acknowledges. "But you know what? I believe in the company. … Yes, I have the coolest job. I'm with NASCAR. But I have on my team a woman who works with wheels and tires, and she's so excited about the wheels and tires."
Her advice: "You are the company. Every action, every word. So be proud of what you do."
Colon says she has encountered resistance along the way, being Latina in a male-dominated sport and profession.
"At first, there were some speed bumps," she recalls. "But nothing that was way out of control. If somebody said something, it just gave me more inspiration to work harder. … The deal is, if you don't do your job right, it doesn't matter what you are. You are out of the picture."
Now she's a familiar figure at the racetrack. "They just know that I'm part of the team," she says.
A bit of perseverance is also useful when traveling, she says. "You have to have a lot of patience when you travel and realize things are going to happen," she says. "We don't like to be delayed with a flight. But you know one thing — it's not the fault of the gate agent who announces the delay. You just have to work with the system and deal with the situation that you have."
It's also tough being away so much from her husband, Jeff Ruedisueli, she says. Then again, if it weren't for a business trip, Colon might never have met him.
"I met my husband traveling in an airplane," she says. They spotted each other at the airport in Greensboro, N.C., Gate 20, and struck up a conversation on the flight.
Four years later, they were married.
"It was difficult going out on the first date," she says, "because I was always traveling."
Colon's travel profile:
Miles on the road annually: 100,000
Top tips:
• Join an airline club.
• Turn on the local news when you arrive in a new city.
• Get tips from the front desk on interesting places to go.
• Enjoy yourself. Take the opportunity to meet new people and see new sights.