Yale executive recognized as a trailblazing female supply chain leader

Yale Lift Truck Technologies’ vice president of Global Marketing Strategy and Activation, Jill Comer, has been selected as a trailblazer in the 2024 Women in Supply Chain awards, presented by industry publications Supply & Demand Chain Executive and Food Logistics. The award honours female leaders who continue to pave the way for future women pursuing careers in supply chain.

At Yale, a division of Hyster-Yale Materials Handling, Comer was the first female to hold a sales management position in the brand’s nationwide dealer network and was instrumental in founding the W4I women in leadership employee resource group (ERG), the first ERG at Hyster-Yale Materials Handling. Jill has worked her entire career alongside and with the organization, securing an internship in the Yale dealer network while attending Penn State University, and moving into a full-time dealership role immediately after college. During her tenure in the dealer network, she built strong relationships with leaders in the corporate organization, who recruited her to a major account role.

After rising to a director role, she then exercised her skill and passion for supporting dealer initiatives as a vice president of dealer sales for the eastern US before being selected by leadership to build a new team dedicated to working with large dealer accounts. Now Comer leads the global brand, emerging technologies and events teams.

“Jill has been the embodiment of a materials handling industry trailblazer here at Yale,” says Brad Long, North America Brand Marketing and Global Activation manager at Yale. “Under Jill’s leadership, her team has developed a careful focus on the customer industries that are most strongly aligned with Yale and our sister brand, Hyster. She has cultivated strategies that support clear, meaningful brand differentiation to address the distinct needs and challenges of our respective customers and has helped unite cross-functional teams to work cohesively on executing those strategies.”

Jill is also passionate about helping her fellow professionals realize the best versions of themselves, a dedication best captured by her unique goal to someday work for someone who once worked for her. “That would make me so happy,” Comer says. “I have had the opportunity to work with so many talented people, and really believe you’re learning as much from them as they are from you.”