women of the industry
Women’s Industry Network (WIN) is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to encouraging, developing and cultivating opportunities to attract women to collision repair while recognizing excellence, promoting leadership, and fostering a network among the women who are shaping the industry. Collision Repair magazine is pleased to announce that Mary Monardo, and every woman profiled in our Women of the Industry section, will receive a membership to WIN.
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For more information on WIN, please visit womensindustrynetwork.com.
Mary Monardo is a driving force... ...not to be reckoned with. By Megan Ng
wo things that come to mind upon meeting Mary Monardo: the first fearlessness. The second is respect. Before life as president of Mondial Fine Cars began for Mary in 1992, she ran a smooth operation in the Monardo household as a stay-at-home mom to two girls. The idea to start an auto collision business came to her when talking to her husband, Vince, who was a painter at the time taking care of high-end vehicles. She believed so much in his skills that she was confident they could take his talent and her managerial skills to the next level by starting their own business. Mary knew that in order to make the shop successful she would have to be involved in every facet of the business, so with the support of her family she enrolled in an automotive program in Toronto and earned her diploma as a certified appraiser. Today, Mondial, located in Weston, Ontario, consists of two facilities—12 000 sq. ft. and 10 000 sq. ft. respectively. It is a family operation, including her husband and son-in-law. Mary’s daughter Nicole works as Mondial’s office manager. Mary hopes Nicole will one day be as successful as she has with operating the shop. Not to be outdone, her other daughter Sandra has followed in family’s entrepreneurial spirit. She currently owns a thriving interior design business—Sandy Joe’s Interior Design Ltd—in Toronto’s Yorkville neighbourhood. As a successful partner to Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Mary and her team of 13 are sending out repaired vehicles at a lightning fast pace. “We’ve been with Enterprise Rent-A-Car for many years. They are a great team to work with. They’re honest and ethical. They 32 collision Repair collisionrepairmag.com
respect women in and outside of their company,” Mary said. “We have a great relationship!” An average day for Mary starts at about 6am. She is in the shop working by 7am organizing the day, placing jobs in order of which vehicle is next authorized to be repaired, personally writing estimates, documenting the vehicles with photographs and assigning job duties every morning to her staff. Vehicles are usually released in about two to three days. At the shop, Mary is known to be a bit of a drill sergeant, but on the other hand, she is also known to be giving and charismatic, earning well-deserved respect from her employees. “As a woman, you have to make sure your staff recognizes you. As a boss, I make sure I control the situation if one the guys is giving me a hard time,” Mary said. “When they first come in, they don’t see me as a boss, but after the first week I make sure they know.” Her capacity to manage work and people simultaneously has no doubt contributed to her success, as has her desire to prove to skeptics that women can be successful in the industry. “More women should be in parts, supplies, sales—all aspects of the industry. This is an old industry, traditionally dominated by men, but it is in need of new people,” she said. “This could be a booming industry, but people have misconceptions about being in [it] so they don’t take the time to learn about it. “There are a lot of vehicles out there and there are a lot of jobs in this industry for women to be good at it. Women, come join the team!” CRM