FleetGenius promotes first female plant manager

With a background in engineering, Lea Cook joins a small number of female plant managers in the environmental services industry.

Photo of Lea Cook
FleetGenius has announced the promotion of Lea Cook, who will serve as the manager of the company's sprawling Lenoir, North Carolina, plant.
Photo courtesy of FleetGenius

Naples, Florida-based FleetGenius LLC has promoted employee Lea Cook to plant manager in its Lenoir, North Carolina, facility. She will be the first woman promoted to plant manager at FleetGenius and among only a few females in the environmental services industry to hold such a title.

“With a lot of coaching, guidance and support from the upper FleetGenius team, a light bulb came on, and I realized ‘Oh I can do this!’” Cook says. “When you have a team that agrees, supports and backs you up, it makes all the difference. 

Cook has a background in engineering, and, prior to taking on her new role, earned an associates’ degree in engineering and worked her way up for two years within the company.

When asked about tips for other female leaders in the industry or those who want to work their way into leadership positions, Cook says two quotes that stuck in her mind:

“‘Where there’s a will, there’s a way,’ and ‘Can’t never could, ‘til it did.’” I know they can be seen as silly phrases, but they were a big driver for me, through and through,” she says.

Her plans for the future? Cook says she wants to create a workplace where employees feel they can express themselves and strive to reach their potential, adding she wants to “bring together the team and get all their wonderful ideas out there and help them to express themselves and flap their little wings.”

FleetGenius is a full-service container and compactor solutions partner. Container and compactor solutions include sales, refurbishment, field service repairs, rentals, inventory management, cleaning, repairs, rebranding and end-of-life container recycling. New products include steel front load containers, roll-off containers, industrial containers, hoppers, trailers, recycling containers and the Pinnacle line of compactors and receivers.