Twenty years ago, Hilary Noack, then seventeen, was eager to restore a 1970 Oldsmobile, so she asked a local auto-body shop to take her on as an apprentice. That kicked off her journey into the male-dominated auto body restoration trade. In 2015, she founded Ink n Iron Automotive in Oakville, Ontario—a woman-owned, women-run body shop.
Keenly aware that women on unorthodox career tracks often experience hiring discrimination, harassment on the job, and little encouragement from family and friends, Hilary has multiple goals for her enterprise: providing a healthy, thriving workplace for women in the auto body industry; inspiring, training, and supporting the next generation of professionals; and styling and restoring remarkable cars.
Hilary can share her hands-on, hard-won experience, speaking about women pursuing unconventional careers, the benefits of learning a trade, the ups and downs of starting and operating one’s own business, and the challenges of maintaining mental and emotional health in the workplace.