Portland State Magazine Fall 2017

24 PORTLAND STATE MAGAZINE FALL 2017 RISING THROUGH the male-dominated ranks of one of the largest truck manufacturers is only one of the hurdles Lori Heino-Royer has overcome in her unconventional career path. "Much of what I have accomplished started with me accepting that I am different than everyone around me and not being afraid to act on it," says Heino-Royer MBA ’02. Those accomplishments make an impressive list. She currently heads business innovation and the Program Management Office at Daimler Trucks North America, a role she built on her track record of knowing what the company needed and delivering it. Among her successes: Daimler’s first iPad sales app, an internal creative idea incubator, and a strategic foresight team. Her route to an executive position at Daimler has had as many gear shifts and reinventions as the massive trucks she helps build. While working as an order intake clerk after graduating from high school, the owner told her she would never earn a higher salary as a woman in his company. Heino-Royer took the snub as a challenge. The real hurdle, she determined, was that she didn’t have a college degree or a skill that would help her rise. She decided to learn accounting—a feat she managed while parenting a baby with little support because her family was on the other side of the country. AFTER BEING hired by Daimler, Heino-Royer enrolled in Portland State’s MBA program, where she juggled classes, work and childcare. “I knew I had to get through, because I wanted to diversify myself out of being seen as just a finance person,” she says. Her tenacity paid off. With the academic credentials to back up her insights, Heino-Royer moved into sales at Daimler, and then project management before being promoted to her current role, where she leads a team of 25 and reports directly to the CEO. “After your first act of bravery,” she says, “all other challenges seem manageable.”  Working her way up the corporate ranks Alumni