Leading With Purpose: Ayesha Coker, Porsche's Newest VP of Marketing

One of the most important lessons we learn growing up is what actual leadership is. It’s not just about being up front and telling others what to do. Ayesha Coker knows that leadership is much more than just being the “boss,” and the sooner someone understands that, the farther they can get. Coker’s understanding of what it means to be a leader was the catalyst of her history-making appointment as first African American and first woman of color to join the leadership team at Porsche Cars North America when she was tapped to be vice president of marketing.

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What Does Leadership Really Mean?

“I always look at a leadership role as a service role,” Coker says. “I, as a leader, am here to service others, not for people to service me. In order to do that in a very successful way, you have to really get to know your team and know the needs of your team.”

Hopefully the younger readers were paying close attention. Understanding the responsibility of leadership is not necessarily taught in a classroom. For Coker, the ability to read people and understanding their needs is a key skill when it comes to learning how best be of service to a team.

“The biggest thing is taking a keen interest in them,” Coker says. “When you start out in your career, you’re usually an individual contributor. You are responsible for a specific project or a specific role on your team. When you grow, no matter whether it’s a manager position, a senior manager position, or a director position, your scope expands. When your scope expands, you tend to get people coming in that are going to help you achieve your goals. Sometimes you may not be able to choose who those people might be. They may already be in that space prior to you obtaining the role, so you have to learn to adapt. That’s a key word [adapt]. Be flexible when moving into these positions and learning about people as you go. It’s a development that happens over time. It’s always a learning journey to be able to navigate those waters.”

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What Does a VP Actually Do?

Have you ever come across a news report about someone taking on a major role—like a vice president—at a huge company and wondered what a VP even does? I have, too; luckily my sit-down with Coker gave me the chance to ask what the day-to-day for a VP is like.

“I think a big part of this role is creating and developing campaigns as well as experiential events that help convey the overarching vision for Porsche when it comes to how we interact with consumers. I would say what I touch the most is communication. ‘What does communication look like?’ ‘What are the strategic campaigns and products we need to focus on to help the dealers drive the business that they need to do?’ There’s also the Porsche Track Experience, which correlate directly to customers coming in and experiencing the Porsche brand on our turf. So a big part of the marketing department is overseeing the Porsche Experience Centers.

“Where I really lean in to is creating a vision for the team to follow,” she continues. “At the end of the day, they need a vision, they need support, and they need to know that the direction in which they’re going is the right one. So I take pride in making sure that I put them on the straight path to achieve the goals that we need to achieve.”

To recap: Team building, communications, campaign management, and influencing the direction of a legacy luxury car brand are all in a day’s work for Coker. If that sounds like a lot, that’s because it is. I couldn’t imagine the kind of pressure that comes with a job where the stakes are so high. It can’t be easy, right? I asked Coker what the most difficult part of her role is, and her answer was nothing short of pure badassery.

“I wouldn’t say there’s difficulty in the role,” she says. “I would say where I find the most growth is leadership and working with different facets of people, knowing how to work with people on the team based on their personality and needs.” What a powerful response. Where others see difficulty, Coker sees a way to grow and get better for the benefit of her team. What an incredible frame of mind to have when navigating such an integral position to Porsche.

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From Fashion to Fast Cars

Like many successful people, Coker’s path didn’t start on the expected path. Coker originally studied fashion merchandising at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore before going on to earn a second degree in advertising and integrated marketing at Fashion Institute of Technology. Unfortunately, attacks on higher education have become a political football, and fashion has even been labeled as a “useless” degree. Yet Coker utilized her education in fashion to achieve historic success. So how did she wind up in the automotive industry after starting out with fashion?

“What really intrigued me about the fashion industry is the creativity within it as well as the importance of design aesthetics,” she says. “It was interesting that at first, I did not uncover the correlation [between fashion and automotive] when I embarked on my journey.

“Honestly, just like everybody else, when you graduate from college you just really want a job, right?” she continues. “That’s the honest truth. When I graduated, there was a great opportunity for me to get my foot into the door with a very reputable company. It was more on the marketing side, not necessarily the fashion side. Marketing was my minor. It was still in the realm of my education and subject matter that I took interest in, but it wasn’t my major.”

The opportunity Coker spoke of was with an automotive marketing firm before she began her tenure at Porsche, but it was during her time at that prior position when she started to discover the connections between her educational roots in fashion and automobiles.

“I quickly learned once I started in the automotive industry how many similarities there are between automotive and fashion,” she says. “The first one being the attention to detail put into designing cars. There’s also the innovation in materials and craftsmanship; I love that. A phrase that I found used often when I began working at Porsche is ‘form follows function.’ It’s the same in fashion. There’s a reason why clothes can be looked at as a work of art. There’s also cultural relevance in both industries, and there’s the fact that you can put your unique personality in your fashion as well as your vehicle.”

With over a decade at Porsche North America, it’s likely Coker has been behind the wheel of just about every vehicle the automaker has offered in recent years. I had to know which one is her favorite.

“I would say the vehicle I’m driving right now, which is the 911 Targa GTS, is one of my favorite models,” Coker says. “I love the targa top and having some of the aspects of a convertible. I also like the glass portion of the roof and the 911 lines. It also gives me a little bit of a back seat, so it can function as a four-seater for two small people—or for me specifically, two small dogs. Then there’s the power and agility that I love so much in a 911.”

MotorTrend is pretty fond of the 911 Targa GTS, as well, so I get where Coker is coming from. Fun fact: Coker’s favorite Porsche color is Ruby Star Neo, and during our sit-down Coker’s suit, makeup, and nail color were a perfect match to her Ruby Star Neo 911 Targa GTS.

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A Historic Promotion

In 2022 Coker became first African American and first woman of color in a leadership role at Porsche North America. As a Black man who wants to see more people who look like me filling influential positions in the industry, I know what Coker’s success means to me, but I wanted to know what it meant to her. How did it make her feel when she realized she made history?

“It didn’t hit me all at once,” Coker says. “It was gradual. When the appointment was made, I just really wanted to get to work. I wanted to bring my viewpoints and leadership skills [to the role] and all the work I had done for so long. Even though I started that role in 2022, at that point had been with Porsche North America for almost 11 years.

“It was finally my time to showcase all the work I had done and all the knowledge I was bringing from past roles into this position to lead such a dynamic and strong team,” she continues. “I was so excited about the opportunity to foster a really strong team and represent the brand on the highest level.”

In the end, what catalyzed the realization for Coker didn’t come from within but from others sharing their feelings about her monumental achievement. “It wasn’t until I started to receive a lot of messages from different people within the organization and outside of it about what my appointment meant to them,” she says. “That’s when it really started to sink in how powerful of a role I was embarking on and what it meant for future opportunities for other people of color. It was an eye-opening experience for me, but it just made me dig in deeper to know I was setting the example and being a role model for people.”

I could see how being in that position could be daunting and a source of immense pressure. However, if you haven’t figured it out by now, Coker is different. Pressure just isn’t a factor for her.

“It motivates me,” Coker says. “It motivates me every day to lead with purpose and by example. Everything I do, I know people are watching, and it’s not a negative thing for me. I don’t feel anxiety or pressured by it. I just feel like I was built for this. I’m here for a reason, and I want to make sure that when I speak, I’m not just representing people of color or women. I’m representing humanity and making sure that I leave a legacy behind that is also pushing the company forward.”

As you might imagine, Coker’s confidence and mindset mean she isn’t rattled at all when it comes to being the only person of color or woman in the room. “In this company, it’s very different, especially when you rise to a position of this magnitude—you don’t really focus on those aspects,” Coker says. “I was taught at a very young age not to see color. That’s just how I was raised because there was a lot of times in my life that I was the ‘only one in the room.’ Because I was raised that way and because I’ve been in environments like that all my life, once I got to this position, it didn’t feel any different than any other time in my life.

“You focus on more important things,” she continues, “like making sure your voice is heard because you want your perspective to be taken seriously, and you lean more into the things you’re trying to achieve. So it doesn’t leave a lot of room to be worried about why am I the only one in here that looks like me, you know? That’s just my personal journey.”

That’s not to say she’s been oblivious to her surroundings. “It’s just something that didn’t resonate that much for me when I got into the position,” she says. “I’ve had management positions even prior where I was the only woman, and to me it was most important that I had a seat at the table and that I was taken seriously. When I had something to say or when I had something I was trying to convey, I wanted to make sure they focused on the idea and the vision versus the person who was conveying it.”

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Diversity of Thought

Don’t get it twisted, though. Coker may not personally get shaken in those situations, but she still wants them to be less frequent. She strongly advocates for the automotive industry becoming more diverse, and she has her own view on how to create change for the better.

“I believe in diversity full force,” Coker says. “I think it’s about always being open and intentional about diverse perspectives. I love the phrase ‘diversity of thought’ because diversity stems from cultural background, where they come from, but also their thoughts. It’s being open-minded to accept opinions that may differ from your own and understanding there are lots of different ways to achieve success. Just because someone does something a different way than you do doesn’t mean it’s wrong.”

Coker emphasizes the importance of seeking ideas from broad perspectives. “Sometimes what you think may not actually be the best route to get to where you need to go,” she says. “If you welcome opinions from different people, you tend to see the plethora of ideas that come from that. I am all about fostering culture that is accepting of people from different backgrounds. I think more leaders need to be open to being inclusive of the workplace.”

Coker isn’t just paying lip service; she walks the walk. Because of her background and perspective, she helped Porsche reach an audience that perhaps the automaker may not have reached as well before. “When I first started with Porsche, the marketing team was really focused on track events, auto shows, and things like that,” Coker says. “Those things are great because you find the people who are into performance, which is a part of what Porsche stands for, but you may not find as many women [at those events].

“A lot of women are into philanthropy, cultural events, art, music, and fashion,” she continues. “When I started as VP, I made sure we changed the landscape of the things we do. We are still doing driving events and lean very heavily on our motorsports DNA, but we have also infused culture into our initiatives and our strategy. That’s why we did the event with the Met Gala and Vogue magazine. We’ve done Art Basel, and we do cultural events like South by Southwest. We’ve expanded our portfolio to those spaces, where we’re meeting people where they are and not just staying within the realm of track performance.”

Bringing Porsche to spaces where it hadn’t intentionally reached before illustrates one of the best ways to increase diversity, which is visibility. And visibility has lasting effects; seeing someone with a similar background doing things you’ve never seen done before can reveal new possibilities and inspire your own journey.

In Coker’s case, she’s undoubtedly already inspired people through her achievements. For those who may be just now discovering her and want to follow her example, she has some advice: “You need to believe in yourself and have a vision. I always tell people to have a vision of where you want to go. Don’t be afraid to take risks and step out of your comfort zone. Sometimes people may believe in you more than you believe in yourself, and I think it should be the reverse. I also think you should seek out mentors and most importantly focus on excellence in everything that you do.”

As part of MotorTrend's Black History Month celebration, each week in February you'll hear from one of the African American people who help shape the automotive industry. Next up is YouTube mega star Rich Benoit.

Images provided by Porsche Cars North America.