Tracey Ann Thomas is the Vice President of People at Florida Coast Equipment, LLC, where she leads HR strategies that align with business goals and drive organizational development. With over 15 years of experience, Tracey has a proven track record in leadership development, coaching, and collaboration, and has successfully managed HR teams across various organizations, including PowerWright Technologies and Lennar. Throughout her career, she has played a key role in driving organizational change and is dedicated to creating high-performance cultures that contribute to business success.
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Alka Bahal: Welcome to the ThinkFactory’s Workplace Podcast, powered by OGC Solutions, the podcast where we explore the ever-evolving landscape of workplace dynamics. My name is Alka Bahal. I’m a partner with OGC Solutions and chair of our Corporate Immigration Services Group, and I’ll be your host today. I am very pleased to have with me Tracey Ann Thomas, Vice President at Florida Coast Equipment. Welcome to the podcast, Tracey!
Tracey Ann Thomas: I am very happy to be here today. Thank you!
Alka Bahal: Can you start by telling our listeners a little bit about yourself and what you do, Tracey Ann?
Tracey Ann Thomas: So I am currently the VP of People at Florida Coast Equipment, and we are Kubota’s number one dealer in the U.S. My background has always been in human resources, and I have worked in the Caribbean, and I’ve worked in the U.S. as well. I see myself more as a strong HR generalist and strategic professional, and I’ve had the wonderful opportunity to touch many aspects of HR—compliance, recruiting and talent acquisition, talent development, and general HR employee relations. So I think I have been fortunate to get a well-rounded HR experience.
Alka Bahal: Wonderful. So you mentioned that you worked in the Caribbean, you worked here. Tell us about your career path and what led you to the current position.
Tracey Ann Thomas: So I like to think that HR found me, and I didn’t find HR, and I have a wonderful professor coming out of college to thank for that, who lined me up with a job opportunity, which was with a company in the U.K. that was starting a branch in Jamaica, where I lived at the time, and that was in psychometric assessment and testing. So that was my entry into recruiting, into using assessments for talent development, and using it for employee as well as executive coaching and management.
So that was a wonderful opportunity. And from there, I think I also got very good experiences working with companies like KPMG and Pricewaterhouse, where I was on the consulting side, and then eventually went into the industry side, where I was able to be a very good source in terms of implementing things. And that’s really where I found my love for HR.
Alka Bahal: Excellent. So you have a sort of unique perspective on being a female leader in the workplace and having that experience that you have experienced both in Jamaica and in the U.S.?
Tracey Ann Thomas: Yes, I have been in positions where I am reporting to the CEO, in a few instances, being the only female at the leadership table. One of the great things I really enjoy about working with Florida Coast Equipment is that it has given me a very good environment and an opportunity to really sit at the table, to let my voice be heard. My CEO and executives value what I have to say.
I have been along the spectrum of being ignored to being valued and now being sought after—not just for HR initiatives in the organization, but for many other things, even from an operations side of the organization.
Alka Bahal: That’s really nice to hear in this day and age. We don’t always hear that that is the way it works when there are women in a leadership position. But tell me, how has that evolved for you over time?
You said that you’ve been places where you’ve been ignored. Do you think that this is an evolution in society and that women are more accepted as leaders or do you still think it’s somewhat specific to the employer?
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