As founder and president of Simko North America L.L.C., based in Colorado Springs, Colo., Whitney Luckett is described as a "transformative force" in the rubber supply chain for her work bridging North American companies with suppliers from around the globe.
Luckett has kept her fingers on the pulse of the rubber supply chain for over three decades after transitioning to the industry from Cargill in 1988. She founded her first woman-led business in 2013 before starting Simko in 2017—which now boasts $60 million annually in raw materials for tire manufacturers and auto makers.
Luckett's interest in supply chains began when she was just 9 years old after touring an automotive parts plant in Detroit, and her international world view was fostered through an internship with the German Parliament in the 1980s while she was in college, according to her nomination.
"I interned with a man who (had) newly come to power with the Christian Democrats, the CDU (of Germany)," Luckett told Rubber News. "He eventually became the defense minister of Germany, and he was, at the time I was working for him, probably one of the fastest rising stars."
Luckett, who was just 20 years old during the internship, learned firsthand about diplomacy and "the art of negotiation" at a time the country was split into East and West Germany and the Green Party was rising.
"I was there during a very intense period in German politics," she said. "It was fascinating."
At the time of her internship, Luckett attended Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa, where she received her bachelor's degree in German. After graduation, she said, it was straight to Cargill, where she worked until 1988.
Growing Simko into the business it is today, she said, is one of her greatest accomplishments in her career. But if you ask her what she's most proud of, it's the works she's done to support other women, professionally and personally, and giving back to her community.
Today, as owner and president of the woman-led Simko N.A., Luckett is a member of the Women's Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC), where she serves as a Colorado Forum Leader for WBEC-West, a regional partner of WBENC.
Through WBEC-West, Luckett helps support and mentor women "taking the reins of their own business ventures" throughout Arizona, Colorado, Southern California, Utah, Wyoming, Nevada, Hawaii and Guam.
Luckett also serves on a public-private partnership out of Washington, D.C., that focuses on natural rubber alternatives and the security and geopolitical consequences of NR supply chains.
"We are trying to ensure the security of natural rubber availability going 10 years, 20 years down the road," Luckett said, noting the group is seeking solutions to the NR supply chain as it faces the threats of climate change and geopolitical unrest.
In the community, her contributions "are as impressive as her business achievements," according to her nomination.
For over 20 years, Luckett has hosted music lovers at her home with a concert series, the Friend's House Concert, which has morphed into the non-profit Rocky Mountain Highway Music Collaborative and the MeadowGrass Music Festival.
And for the past nine years, Luckett has volunteered with TESSA of Colorado Springs, a local organization that supports people dealing with domestic violence.
Luckett's passion for getting involved with TESSA comes from her own experience with sexual violence when she was a freshman in college, she said.
"I have since come to find that there have been so many friends sexually assaulted" or facing other forms domestic violence, she said. "I think it's important for us all to realize that it's just not 'those people.' It's right here in your own friend circle."
And amid the ongoing war in Ukraine, Luckett has hosted a family of Ukrainian refugees—including a fellow businesswoman Yana Malyk and her two daughters Liza and Ulia—who have since become part of her family.
She was proud to announce that the eldest of the two girls, whom she considers her granddaughters, was recently offered a scholarship to Grinnell College, the same college Luckett attended.
"She graduated summa cum laude from the local high school and got a full ride scholarship to Grinnell. And they're giving her $80,000 a year," she said.
Luckett and Malyk also co-founded the non-profit Ukraine Power, which provides humanitarian aid to war-torn regions of Ukraine and displaced families. As of July, Ukraine Power has delivered aid to Ukraine valued at over $122,000.
Luckett says she strives to leave the world "a better place than it was."
Looking forward for Simko, Luckett said she wants to strengthen the global supply chain relationships with the top tire makers and to steward the leadership of her company to be able to run on its own in the next few years.
"I kind of see the business as this huge puzzle, and right now, I'm the only one that as all the pieces," she said, noting she hopes to grow the team at Simko so she can start stepping back to make more time for herself and her non-profits.
"There's another decade of work to be done in Ukraine," she said. "I really do just want to make the world better when I leave, I want to know that I've made the world a better place in at least a couple of different spots."
Luckett said she finds love to be her biggest inspiration and empathy her guiding principle.
"I don't mean to sound like a flower child with this, but I think that love is probably my biggest inspiration. I think that we find it sometimes in the oddest of places, but I think if we would all open our hearts to one another, the world would be a much better place," she said.
"We're all fricking people and we're motivated by the same thing," she added. "If you treat people like animals, they're going to bite you."
This is why Luckett leads by bringing people together and taking time to understand the people and the world around her. By optimizing people's strengths to achieve balance and synergy.
"Whitney's leadership is characterized by her boundless energy, enthusiasm, and a unique ability to connect with people," her nomination states. "Her philosophy is grounded in the idea of being a connector—of people and ideas—which she believes is crucial in both business and personal realms.
"Whitney breaks the mold every day by marching to the beat of her own drum—and inspires the next generation to walk alongside with her."
Years with company: 7
Years in rubber industry: 36