Lee Peters

Lee Peters walks the talk of a male ally in his role at Deloitte, from his 50/50 gender team to seeking opportunities to research and support how best to attract  and retain women in the greater industry. A proud father of two girls, Lee knows how important diversity is in driving innovation and success, both in the workplace and the world in general.

Please explain your job to us? 

I’m a partner of Deloitte, and a specialist advisor within our Deloitte Motor Industry Services (MIS) team. We work with most stakeholders in the Australian automotive sector, specialising in servicing both OEM and NSC network operations, publicly and privately owned and operated motor dealerships, and the adjacent organisations right across the breadth of the sector.

There are four key pillars of our Deloitte MIS business - Profit Focus, Performance Focus division, Pioneer Focus Division and our People Focus division. The People Focus division is where we provide training and capability development programs for all automotive industry personnel, from front-line dealership staff, to executive leaders, through to corporate and regional teams, covering the skills people need to perform in all areas of business – operational, financial, and human-centred development.

What was your first job and general path to where you are now?

I’ve only ever had one real job… this one.

Having begun my career in Adelaide, I then moved to our Brisbane office, then to our Sydney office, and now finally to our Melbourne office for the last 10 years. I now lead our Deloitte MIS team nationally, where we pride ourselves on being the leading advisor to the automotive industry.

For the first decade I was an auditor and Chartered Accountant. I spent my time travelling around the country working in a new dealership boardroom every week, punching through their financial audit. I absolutely loved it. I met some awesome people, did some really interesting work, and got to really understand the ‘nuts and bolts’ of what drives high performance within a dealership. For the last decade, I’ve pivoted my attention to being a consultant, advising clients on ways to improve their business. I wanted to move away from not just counting clients’ money, but instead helping clients to make more of it. 

What do you love about your job?

One of the great things about the automotive industry is that because the ‘widgets’ (cars) have a high value and the volume sold is so significant, small changes to performance and daily continuous improvement activities can have such a massive impact on the result… and people are central to all of this.

And that’s what I love about my job. How everything comes back to the person… as an individual, and as part of a team. I am most passionate about the people that sit behind all of these automotive organisations, and love working with the people that are the driving force behind this fascinating industry.I have a particular interest and dedication to the people and talent aspects of the industry, and helping our clients solve the issues they are faced with as they battle to win the war for talent - attracting, developing, and retaining great people. I am working hard to partner with my clients through this human-centred transformative journey, as we look to evolve the automotive industry into more of an Employer of Choice.

What does allyship in our industry mean to you?

To me, allyship means listening, learning, and then taking action. 

Learning more about this as I go (and with still a long way to go), allyship is about setting the tone from the top to create space for diverse perspectives, ensure all team members feel valued and empowered to contribute, and then using the depth and breadth of these perspectives to collectively become something greater than the sum of its parts. In a business context, strong allyship drives innovation, collaboration, and better decision-making. It helps build a culture where differences are embraced, leading to higher engagement and performance..

What are some of the things you have done in your current work place to be a male ally?

I consider our Deloitte MIS team to be an important stakeholder in the overall automotive eco-system – not just an outside supplier, but a core part of the industry’s fabric. 

Whilst closer to only 10% of the automotive industry here in Australia is female, over 50% of our MIS team are female. This has been a purposeful focus, to ensure that we can support our own female team members to develop into awesome consultants and trusted advisors within the automotive industry, and also to be able to highlight positive female role-models to our clients and the broader market.

We are fully focused on mentoring our talented female team members and giving them the opportunity to develop and progress their careers. Deloitte does a great job of this, and central to this, is our ‘Inspiring Women’ development program. 

What motivates you to actively address the gender gap in our industry?

I’ve worked with the automotive industry for a long time now, and while we are making important progress in this area, I don’t think we can confidently say that we are yet a true ‘Employer of Choice’. I think the industry can be. I think the industry should be. I think the industry will be… but more focus is required.

One special mention that I’d like to make is that of my first boss at Deloitte, Stavroula Papadatos. Stav was a trailblazer within the firm and within the automotive industry. As a young female audit partner, she showed other females in our profession a pathway forward in their own careers, and highlighted the ability to carve out an awesome career in what was then a very male-dominated profession (accounting) working within a very male-dominated industry (automotive). Stav worked hard, built trusted relationships, was authentic in her approach, and was damn good at her job… and because of all of that, she became so well respected by some of the heaviest hitters in the industry. What a legend!

The focus that I have now is to hopefully be able to positively impact the industry’s evolution into an ‘Employer of Choice’ in my own way. I have two young daughters, a four-year-old and a two-year-old. My hope is that when they are ready to leave school and enter the workforce, an attractive career in the automotive industry is waiting for them. A career that is engaging and rewarding. A career that is exciting and expansive. A career that is safe and secure. And a career that opens a world of possibilities to them for the rest of their life.

What do we need to do to inspire more male advocates?

Talk. Share. Showcase. Teach. Listen. Learn. Discuss. 

The more that these topics can be brought to life through discussions, the more prominent the messaging will become, and the more the benefits of diversity will be understood. This is not just a topic for the ‘true believers’ anymore… in 2025 and beyond, this is now a business imperative.

I’ve been so excited to see the amazing work that the Women in Automotive (WinA) team have done over the last few years, and how much engagement within the industry the WinA movement has attracted. 

At Deloitte, we run a similar program globally – Women at the Wheel – and have Deloitte teams from many different markets working with their automotive clients to drive this agenda forward. Here in Australia, we are partnering with WinA to amplify the messaging, enhance the number of conversations being had, and build on the great momentum the industry is starting to gather.

What is the best piece of advice you were ever given?

There is one piece of advice that I was told by a mentor in the past, that struck a chord with me at the time, and has somehow stuck with me to this day… and hopefully the sentiment speaks a lot to how I try to approach most days (not every day, but hopefully most days).

“What is success? Success is being excited to go to work… and then being excited to come home.”