Victoria Brown

We are thrilled to feature Victoria Brown, Chief Growth Officer at Savic Motorcycles, who is proving that audacious goals and authentic leadership can transform industries.

At Savic, Victoria owns the entire customer journey while building marketing, sales, and aftersales functions from scratch for an Australian electric motorcycle manufacturer competing on the global stage. What truly sets her apart is her approach to leadership: obsessed with developing others, unafraid of ambiguity, and committed to bringing fresh perspective to an industry that desperately needs it.

In this candid conversation, Victoria shares her philosophy on hiring (hint: pass the vibe check), why leaving comfort zones accelerates growth, and what the automotive and motorcycle industries must do to genuinely attract and retain female talent. Her advice? Celebrate your experience outside the industry and use it unapologetically.

Get ready to be inspired by a leader who puts life first, embraces failure as feedback, and believes that clarity—not comfort—is the kindest form of leadership.

Explain your job to us? 

At Savic, I own the end-to-end customer experience: from discovery through to delivery, aftercare, and long-term advocacy. Ultimately, I’m accountable for growing the business across markets, channels, and revenue streams.

I lead three core functions:

-          Marketing (building desire, demand, and brand equity)

-          Sales (conversion, pipeline, and revenue)

-          Aftersales (customer experience, service partner networks, retention)

What makes the role genuinely exciting is that I’m building these foundations from the ground up. Some days that’s very nerdy like designing CRM architecture, writing sales training or building scenario models. Other days it’s deeply human, like meeting customers, onboarding service partners, or shaping how we show up as an Australian manufacturer in a global EV market.

As a Chief Growth Officer, my lens is always commercial and strategic: where growth comes from, what unlocks scale, how teams connect together, and how we build something that’s both emotionally resonant and operationally sound. It’s part operator, part strategist, part storyteller - and honestly, exactly where I do my best work.

What was your first job?

If we ignore my paper run in 1998, my first official job was as a graphic designer in a small ad agency in Auckland, New Zealand. This gave me incredible exposure to amazing consumer brands like Air New Zealand, Johnson and Johnson and Clorox, which helped to create the foundations for category-leading brand thinking.

There’s so much to learn from big business and FMCG, about fast iterations and testing, while demanding consistency and creating enduring brand storytelling. That combination of moving fast without sacrificing brand still shapes my approach even now, more than 20 years later.

What do you love about your job?

Three things stand out for me: the people, the challenge, and the trajectory.

I genuinely love the team I work with, not just because they’re talented, but because they care deeply about what we’re building. When I describe Savic to others, I talk about our audacious goal (and we don’t use that word nearly enough): we’re an Australian manufacturer competing with some of the biggest global brands in the world.

We’re finding our niche, finding our customers, and delivering bikes that genuinely delight people. This year I’m aiming to enter two new geographic markets which brings such potential and excitement. There’s something incredibly fulfilling about being part of an underdog story.

From a career perspective, I’m also constantly learning. Our CEO, Marc Alexander, has built and scaled multiple tech and EV businesses, and working alongside someone with that level of experience has accelerated my own growth enormously. It’s rare to get this mix of ambition, responsibility, and learning - and I don’t take that lightly.

What have been some of the main challenges you have faced in your career trajectory?

I don’t know if I’d frame it as a challenge, but I think being at Swarovski for almost ten years and then having a huge wide world of opportunities after that role was definitely a pivotal moment for me in my career.

I think when you’re in a company for so long, it’s easy to become institutionalised into specific ways of thinking, ways of collaborating and leading. I absolutely loved my time at Swarovski, it’s a brand I love to this day and still spend too much money on - but when I left there, I challenged myself to find the gaps in my skillset, and fill them.

From there, I went into an agency role as head of strategy - which allowed me to dip into many different industries and organisational types from startups like Dr Chris Brown’s petcare brand Drool, to global brands like McLaren.

The main insight for me at that point was to look for your blind spots, and see how to mitigate them. It's a coaching focus for me with all of my team members and other emerging leaders that I work with, is to audit yourself like a business. What am I excellent at? Where am I relying too heavily on past success? What skills will my next role require that my current one doesn’t? Then go and deliberately seek out those experiences, even if they’re uncomfortable.

What are the most important traits to look for when hiring a new employee?

Every candidate has to answer two questions for me:

-          Do you pass the vibe check? (Do I want to work with you?)

-          Do I trust you to do the job?

It still surprises me how unfriendly or disengaged some candidates are in interviews. No one forced you to apply. The goal is to never be an easy “no” during the hiring process, you want to make it painful for a hiring manager to say no to you.

I’ve just completed four rounds of hiring so let me give some practical advice for candidates:

-          Connect on a human level first, warmth matters

-          Answer the question directly (no waffle)

-          Use specific examples: problem > actions you took > result

-          Explicitly map your experience back to the job ad

One candidate recently blew me away by saying, “You didn’t ask about this, but it’s in the job description and I’ve done it before.” That shows preparation, confidence, and commercial thinking.

If you want to make a hiring manager feel confident, reduce their uncertainty. Show them you’ve done the job before, or that you’ve already thought about how you would.

What do you consider before promoting someone?

First, I want to know that someone wants the opportunity. That shows up in both their words and behaviour.

I’m not interested in hustle culture or working overtime. I look for people who go beyond ticking tasks off a list. Do they research? Do they bring ideas proactively? Do they come with a problem and a proposed solution, instead of handing me the cognitive load?

Within my team, learning is a baseline expectation. If someone reads a great report or learns something new, they share it back. That creates momentum, curiosity, and shared growth.

The other point I’d make here, is that I love to see someone being promoted internally when I’m looking at their resume. Your current employer knows you and your capabilities the best out of everyone - if they’re rewarding you and giving you more opportunities - that tells me that you’re a talent I need to speak with.

How does an employee make an impression on you? What traits make people stand out?

Two things stand out: collaboration and effectiveness. I love working with people who are genuinely good to work with, they see challenges as something we tackle together, not something that creates friction. And equally, I value people who deliver - obviously results are important. Being enjoyable to work with and effective is the sweet spot for me.

How do you handle failure and setbacks/ How do you overcome challenges?

It’s all in the framing. Failure and setbacks are normal, they happen every day, all the time, in every aspect of life. It’s not a negative, it’s just the reality. Take a moment to reflect: ok, what did we learn, what are we doing differently, do I need a moment to recover here or is it not that deep?

It’s healthy to have a bit of a rant and a vent if you need it to make sure you’ve processed what’s happened - but then just move on. Reflection then progress.

Has there been a pivotal moment in your career? Something positive or a challenge you experienced.

Leaving a long, successful corporate career to step into ambiguity was pivotal. Being able to manage yourself through ambiguity is a valuable skill for work and life in general - and also knowing what you need as a person. I love new things, I love opportunities to problem solve and be creative, so I wanted to make intentional decisions for my career that enable me to do that.

How do you help develop others within the business?

I’m obsessed with developing others. I coach emerging leaders in my own time, because I absolutely love helping people who want to grow. Inside the business, I’m intentional about development plans, honest feedback, and follow-through. If it takes longer to give thoughtful, actionable feedback, including examples, my perspective, things I want them to consider next time they do this, and things to read or explore, I see that as an investment, not a cost. I also see developing my team as a core part of my job, not something that’s in the way of me doing my job.

How do you go about attracting and retaining female talent in your workplace?

This is an ongoing focus for me (so any female or non-binary motorcycle riders who want to work at Savic, please hit me up on LinkedIn). What I find is that even when I post for a role, and recently I’ve completed four rounds of recruitment, I’m seeing less than 5% of the applicants are NOT male.

I’ve tried emailing female riding groups asking if they’d post my job in their group, and posting on diverse recruitment platforms. Coming from my previous roles in industries that are far more balanced like creative agencies and fashion, the difference is stark and represents a big opportunity. Where I can’t find inhouse female talent, I supplement our core team with diverse partners and collaborators like the incredible Jemima at Meaningful agency, or Cindy our HR partner, or Janine our finance partner.

How do you manage work/life balance? What are your methods or key tips to staying on top of everything

Um, lol. There is no balance day to day, or week to week. I aim for longer term balance - like I might have a crazy few months at work, but then prioritise responsible work times, taking holidays and breaks etc for the next few months. I am someone that gets excited and committed about what I'm doing, so I follow my own energy. If this week I want to go HARD AF and work like crazy I do that, and it’s fulfilling. If the next week I want to clock off at 5pm and play games and go out for dinner - I do that. If I ever start to feel resentful, or angry (like I’m angry I’m working this hard) it means I'm not listening to myself - and then it’s about quickly identifying what’s throwing me off and solving it.

I also call it life/work balance - gotta put life first.

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

One of my favourite leaders, Sandra Irniger, told me early in my career that while I was high-potential and effective, if I didn’t learn to manage my ego, it would eventually get in my way. That forced me to develop real self-awareness, understanding my triggers, how I received feedback, and how I showed up in collaboration. Building really solid self-awareness was and is the biggest game changer, in being able to self-regulate, make better decisions, learn more about yourself, and is something I continue to practice every day.

I also wanted to share this one, because it’s really helpful for people management. In a workshop with Paul Zahra (ex David Jones CEO), he said something to me that still gives me goosebumps: “The standards you walk past are the standards you accept.” I thought being a good leader was not interfering, but actually, being a better leader was setting and upholding expectations that empower happy and effective teams. That changed how I lead. Avoiding discomfort doesn’t make you kind, clarity does. As Kim Scott says, clear is kind.

What is your advice for a female trying to build her career and move up in automotive/moto?

Celebrate your experience outside Auto/Moto and use it. Any non-auto experience is a strength, not a weakness. Automotive could benefit hugely from better storytelling, customer experience, commercial thinking, and emotional intelligence. Bring what you know and apply it unapologetically.

Also: build credibility fast. Know your numbers. Ask smart questions. Say “I don’t know” confidently, then go learn. Number one takeaway though - always be growing yourself. What can you read, watch, listen to, try, experiment with that builds your own skill set. Continuous learning signals ambition, discipline, and performance and those traits land well in any industry.

What can the auto/moto industry do to make itself more appealing to women?

From the top down, we need accountability. There are talented leaders consuming content (terrible podcasts and authors, you know the ones I mean) that actively undermines DEI, and that’s showing up in decisions and organisational directives like rolling back DEI initiatives. Inclusion can’t be optional or performative.

From the ground up, we need better pipelines. That means incentives, visibility, and support for young women choosing technical and commercial pathways. Right now, the talent simply isn’t entering the system at scale, and until we fix that, recruitment will remain imbalanced.