Building for the Next Generation of Women Leaders with Tara Stryker

OwenOctober 21, 2026 · 5 min read

Heavy equipment and construction have long been male-dominated industries. When Tara Stryker, Vice President of Strategic Accounts at Ritchie Bros., started her career more than 20 years ago, women on the job site, on the sales floor, and in the boardroom were few and far between.

Today, the picture looks very different. In honor of Women’s History Month, we sat down with Tara to talk about how the industry has changed, the approach that built her career, and how Ritchie Bros. is helping the next generation of women lead.

An Industry Transformed

Tara has watched the role of women in heavy industry evolve dramatically. “When I first entered this space, there were historically very few women in sales, maybe a handful of women and perhaps some support functions,” she says. “But now you really have women in ops, in finance, in marketing, in sales. You see women as execs in this space.”

That shift reaches all the way to the top. Several large equipment dealerships have recently promoted women to the dealer principal role, a position that requires approval from the OEM, and manufacturers now have women in their C-suites. Many of these leaders grew up in family businesses and chose to stay because, like Tara, they find the work exciting and rewarding.

Earning Trust in a Male-Dominated Field

Tara is quick to point out that there is no one-size-fits-all formula. For her, trust was built on two pillars: deep technical knowledge and relentless customer focus. That lesson came early, from her father, who also worked in the industrial space. “If you like this industry, that’s fantastic,” he told her, “but you better learn a product, you better learn what to do when your customers’ machines go down, you better learn how to sell it, how it works engineering-wise, and develop some deep technical knowledge.”

She took that advice to heart, choosing paving, one of the most technical product lines her manufacturer offered. It paid off. Recently, a customer told her he still remembered meeting her more than two decades ago on an overnight paving and milling job on Route 202 in New Jersey.

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“Anytime that you build that deep technical knowledge and connect it with a customer focus, I think it immediately gives you street cred.” Tara Stryker.

The second pillar is authenticity. Early on, Tara believed a male-dominated industry demanded a tough-as-nails exterior, but it never felt true to who she was. Once she let that go and showed up as herself, trust followed. “I’m the same person at work as I am at home,” she says. “That’s when I started to build trust amongst my peers and my teams.”

Advice for Women Entering the Industry

Building a career in heavy construction and industrial equipment isn’t easy. “There’s a reason it’s called work,” Tara says, “but it is getting easier.” Where opportunities for women were once limited, areas like data, machine learning, technology, and supply chain now give newcomers room to go deep and apply a wide range of skill sets.

Her advice centers on three ideas:

Broaden your experience. “To be respected in the job as a leader, you need to know how to do the job,” Tara explains. That doesn’t mean doing your team’s work for them; it means understanding and empathizing with the obstacles they face. “Building a career in this industry isn’t always a promotion. Sometimes it’s learning a new skill set outside of your function.”

Go deep technically. Product and technical expertise earn credibility faster than anything else, with customers and colleagues alike.

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Find a mentor early. “Get yourself a champion, get yourself a mentor as soon as possible,” she says. Tara’s own mentor was male. “I didn’t have the luxury of choosing female mentors when I started,” she notes. Great mentorship isn’t about gender, but it makes a real difference.

How Ritchie Bros. Supports Women in Leadership

At Ritchie Bros., dedicated mentorship forums help women build connections, share experience, and grow as leaders. “We have mentorship forums at RB for women, which are awesome,” Tara says.

For Tara, supporting women in leadership is directly tied to serving customers well. “Look at our buyer and seller base. It’s extremely diverse,” she says. A diverse customer base brings a complex set of problems to solve, and a diverse workforce brings different lenses to solve them.

Why It Matters for Talent and Growth

Attracting and keeping top talent is a major focus across heavy industry. Tara sees a welcoming supportive culture for women as essential to long-term business growth. “Diverse teams lead to broader problem-solving capabilities and, most importantly, resiliency,” she says. In a cyclical business that follows a seven- to ten-year cycle, that resiliency helps insulate a company through downturns. Visibility matters too.

“Strong women with sharp business acumen need to be visible in these roles to encourage the next generation.”

What Comes Next

As the industry shifts from transactional selling toward a strategic advisor role, Tara believes women are especially well positioned to lead. And they aren’t waiting for permission.

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“We’re going and getting it done. We’re out there building a stronger foundation for the next generation.”

This Women’s History Month, we’re proud to celebrate Tara and the many women across Ritchie Bros. and the broader equipment industry who are shaping where it goes next.

See also

How County Governments Can Turn Surplus Equipment Into Budget Relief