Kristin Kolodge is an accomplished automotive and mobility executive whose career has been defined by a consistent ability to connect engineering innovation with human needs, commercial opportunity, and organizational purpose. Across more than three decades in the automotive and technology sectors, she has progressed from hands-on vehicle engineering to enterprise leadership, building expertise across product development, Human Machine Interface (HMI), user experience, regulatory affairs, customer research, product strategy, P&L management, and board governance. Her leadership philosophy is grounded in the belief that even the most sophisticated technology ultimately succeeds when it creates meaningful value for people. That human-centered perspective has guided her work with global automotive manufacturers, suppliers, regulators, academic institutions, research consortia, and emerging mobility organizations.
Kristin began her career at Chrysler, where her engineering foundation was built through increasingly complex responsibilities spanning chassis engineering, vehicle benchmarking, occupant and vehicle packaging, advanced CAD development, interior engineering, operations, quality, and HMI. Early in her career, she helped engineer and launch vehicle systems while developing a systems-level understanding of how customer expectations, manufacturing realities, engineering feasibility, quality, cost, and safety converge in successful products. As her responsibilities expanded, Kristin demonstrated an ability not simply to solve technical problems, but to build repeatable processes and organizations around them. Among her accomplishments, she developed an extended operations capability in Santa Fe, Mexico, helped improve interior fit and finish before vehicle launch, and implemented an innovative quality-assurance fixture solution that saved approximately $1.5 million.
Her growing focus on the interaction between people and technology ultimately positioned Kristin as an influential leader in automotive HMI and user experience. At Chrysler, she helped establish and mature vehicle HMI processes that integrated human factors, ergonomics, usability, cognitive considerations, engineering, and design. She grew HMI capabilities substantially, developed enterprise best practices, expanded user testing, and led HMI logic, flow, and validation work associated with award-winning Uconnect, cluster, and active and passive safety systems. Her leadership reflected a quality that would become central throughout her career: the ability to operate comfortably at the intersection of highly technical disciplines while keeping the customer’s real-world experience at the center of decision-making.
Kristin subsequently moved into regulatory leadership at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, where she managed technical safety, emissions, and regulatory compliance investigations and served as a key point of contact with global regulators. She standardized recall compliance across four international regions, helping align differing regulatory frameworks while strengthening governance around investigations, campaign decisions, and execution. This experience broadened her executive perspective beyond product creation to encompass enterprise risk, regulatory accountability, reputation, and stakeholder trust. It also gave Kristin a valuable understanding of the responsibilities leaders assume when decisions affect not only business performance but customers, regulators, communities, and the broader public.
In 2014, Kristin joined J.D. Power and began the next major chapter of her career, transforming her engineering and HMI expertise into influential research, consulting, product, and commercial leadership. As Executive Director of Human Machine Interface and Driver Interaction, she became a recognized global thought leader in HMI, emerging technology, driver interaction, and mobility disruption. Kristin created an entirely new portfolio of products representing approximately $5 million in P&L responsibility and developed global Voice of the Customer research focused on automotive technology experiences, advanced technology expectations, automated vehicles, battery-electric vehicles, and the changing future of mobility. She also built a cross-functional global mobility research team that translated consumer intelligence into actionable guidance for automotive manufacturers navigating Connected, Autonomous, Shared, and Electric vehicle technologies.
Kristin’s influence became particularly visible as the automotive industry confronted unprecedented technological change. She conducted pioneering consumer acceptance research involving a Level 4 automated vehicle through the Mcity Driverless Shuttle and later helped advance research into robotaxi experiences, electric vehicles, ADAS, and emerging mobility models. Her collaborations extended to organizations such as MIT’s Advanced Vehicle Technology consortium, Mcity, Clemson University, and other industry and academic partners. These relationships produced research and publications addressing subjects ranging from automated vehicle trust and advanced driver-assistance technologies to pooled rideshare acceptance. Kristin also became a frequent industry voice, speaking at conferences and engaging executives and stakeholders on mobility, quality, technology, consumer behavior, and the future of transportation.
Her advancement to Vice President of Automotive Benchmarking and Mobility Development expanded that influence across J.D. Power’s renowned automotive quality and benchmarking portfolio. Kristin held responsibility for a portfolio serving global manufacturers and suppliers and representing approximately $25 million in P&L. During her tenure, she drove 35% revenue growth while leading the redesign of seven of eight syndicated automotive benchmarking products, strengthening their market relevance and client value. She also reimagined the flagship Initial Quality Study in less than a year, introducing repair analytics and real-time data tracking while continuing to cultivate partnerships connecting industry research with academic and technological innovation.
As Vice President of Research Product Management, Kristin was selected to stand up a new organization during a company-wide restructuring and oversee an automotive quality portfolio targeting approximately $30 million in annual P&L. She created strategic product roadmaps for 2026 and 2027 and secured stakeholder alignment around development priorities and resource allocation. Recognizing that transformation requires operating clarity as much as vision, she also developed RACI-based guidelines defining responsibilities and interactions across ten departments, achieving cross-functional alignment within three months. The assignment brought together many of the capabilities developed throughout her career: strategic planning, portfolio leadership, organizational design, financial stewardship, stakeholder management, and the ability to translate broad enterprise objectives into executable operating models.
Beyond her corporate leadership, Kristin has developed meaningful governance and service experience. She served for eight years on the Michigan Technological University Alumni Board of Directors, progressing from Director to Secretary, President, and President Emerita. She has also contributed through the Michigan Tech Presidential Council of Alumnae, SAE leadership activities, mentoring initiatives, and other professional and community organizations. Her professional profile reflects complementary strengths in board governance, executive leadership, strategic planning, risk management, technological innovation, organizational effectiveness, product development, and P&L management. Kristin views board service as a natural extension of a career spent navigating complexity, asking difficult questions, aligning diverse stakeholders, and helping organizations convert insight into meaningful action.
Kristin’s academic foundation combines technical depth with management perspective. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Michigan Technological University and a Master of Science in Engineering Management from the University of Michigan-Dearborn. Her professional development also includes Design for Six Sigma Green Belt certification, executive leadership training through Inforum, and advanced human factors education. Over the course of her career, she has complemented this education with extensive international exposure, including work involving Mexico, Europe, and global automotive markets, and she speaks French. Her combination of engineering fluency and executive business perspective enables her to move comfortably between technical specialists, customers, senior executives, regulators, academics, and governance stakeholders.
Her influence also extends into research and thought leadership. Kristin has contributed to numerous academic and industry publications addressing automated vehicles, human factors, driver-assistance technology, trust, rideshare acceptance, and mobility innovation. She was an original co-author of the “Clearing the Confusion” initiative addressing common terminology for advanced driver-assistance technologies and has participated in collaborative research intended to make emerging mobility technologies more understandable and useful to consumers. Her work demonstrates a recurring commitment to bringing rigor and clarity to complicated issues—whether the challenge involves understanding consumer behavior, defining technology standards, assessing regulatory implications, or determining how an innovation can create sustainable commercial value.
Today, Kristin brings to board and advisory opportunities a distinctive combination of automotive engineering depth, technology and mobility foresight, commercial leadership, governance experience, and Voice of the Customer expertise. She understands products from their engineering foundations through customer adoption and commercialization, and she understands organizations from operating processes through portfolio strategy, risk management, and P&L stewardship. Her experience allows her to contribute particularly relevant perspective to automotive manufacturers, suppliers, mobility organizations, technology businesses, and enterprises navigating innovation, transformation, or changing customer expectations. Her objective in board service is not simply to add another professional credential, but to give back—applying decades of experience, independent perspective, and thoughtful counsel to help organizations advance their missions and build enduring value.
Outside the boardroom and workplace, Kristin’s interests reflect the same combination of discipline, curiosity, and patience visible throughout her professional life. She enjoys triathlons, knitting, and reading—pursuits that range from demanding physical endurance to creativity and continual learning. Across her career and personal endeavors, she has remained oriented toward improvement, meaningful contribution, and the belief that leadership is ultimately measured not simply by what an individual accomplishes, but by the teams, organizations, products, and communities that become stronger as a result.
Character:
Kristin leads with integrity, curiosity, accountability, and a genuine commitment to contributing her experience in service of organizations and people. Her progression from engineer to global executive and board leader reflects resilience, continuous learning, and a willingness to take responsibility for complex challenges where trust and sound judgment matter.
Knowledge:
She combines more than three decades of automotive experience with deep expertise in engineering, HMI and UX, product development, emerging mobility, Voice of the Customer research, regulatory affairs, commercialization, and P&L leadership. Her breadth enables her to understand both the technical details of innovation and the strategic, financial, regulatory, and customer considerations necessary to turn innovation into sustainable value.
Strategic:
Kristin excels at translating ambiguity into actionable direction, whether developing new product portfolios, restructuring established offerings, creating multi-year roadmaps, expanding research globally, or aligning cross-functional organizations around shared priorities. She approaches transformation through a systems perspective, connecting market trends, customer expectations, technological possibilities, operational capabilities, risk, and commercial outcomes before determining the path forward.
Communication:
An experienced public speaker and executive communicator who has spent much of her career translating sophisticated engineering, research, regulatory, and mobility topics for audiences with very different perspectives. Her ability to communicate with OEM executives, suppliers, regulators, academics, technical teams, customers, and board stakeholders enables her to create alignment around complex decisions while keeping discussions grounded in evidence and organizational objectives.
