Global CEO Luke Williams visited auticon Australia this month and had the opportunity to meet with the organisation’s clients, consultants and stakeholders. Luke toured both the Sydney and Melbourne operations, where he had the privilege of meeting everyone in person for the first time.
On his arrival back in the UK he penned a short piece thanking the teams for their hard work and acknowledging the outstanding work of Ben Taylor and the auticon racing team. Here’s what he had to say.
Time with Our Teams and Clients
During my visit, I spent valuable time with our consultants and neuroinclusion specialists in both locations, hearing firsthand the exceptional work being delivered. Just having the opportunity to spend the time and understand people’s passions and views was great – we covered a lot of topics and I answered a lot of questions about auticon!
I was particularly pleased to meet all our key clients, across the country and thank all of them for taking the time to meet with me. The feedback was, again, incredibly strong – we make a difference in the quality of what we are doing and the creativity we bring to solutions, the speed at which we are picking up and adding value to clients… The team should all rightly be very proud of this contribution. In every case, our clients said that they are actively wanting to work with us more…
I also had the chance to spend a good amount of time with Ivonne and the leadership team – we have plenty to do but the team are very focused on what needs to be done and how to continue increasing the scale of what we do and the impact we are collectively having – thank you for hosting me so well!
Meeting ‘Lucy’ and Ben Taylor
Whilst in Melbourne, I had the opportunity to meet Ben Taylor and his Porsche Michelin Challenge Sprint race car, ‘Lucy’. For those who haven’t come across Ben’s story yet, he’s a remarkable 21-year-old autistic racing driver who competes at a high level in the Porsche challenge series in Australia. Thanks to Ben’s powerhouse parents, Grant and Vanessa, auticon is the main sponsor on the car – we all proudly have the same mission!
Ben was diagnosed as autistic at 17 and has embraced what he calls his ‘different operating system’ to excel in motorsport. His achievements speak for themselves: he won on debut in his first race out of karting at the Australian F3 Championships in 2021, and in his first year racing the Porsche Michelin Sprint Challenge in 2024, he secured five top-ten finishes across 18 races. Having sat in the race car and listened to Ben walk me through the controls and the fact that, in the wet, there is no visibility when you are well over 200km, I was very glad the engine was off and I was sitting in a workshop!
Ben is an inspiring person, and his impact extends beyond the racetrack. He’s become a vocal ambassador for the autistic community, speaking at schools, working with autism organisations and showing young people what’s possible when we focus on strengths rather than perceived limitations. As he puts it, he wants to help ‘just one neurodivergent person get the confidence to chase their dreams’.
You can see some videos about Ben and our partnership with him on his website here: https://www.bentaylorracing.com/about
Thanks to all the Australian Team for looking after me so well last week. I look forward to visiting you all again.
Luke
