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REACHING THE TOP
UDM Law graduates excel in their fields
Summer 2006
Tracy Hackman ’86
Tracy Hackman is the vice president, general counsel and secretary for the Americas Region of DaimlerChrylser Financial Services North America, a position that she assumed January 1 of this year—the first female executive in the company’s 41-year history to lead the Office of the General Counsel.
In announcing her appointment, Klaus Entenmann, president and CEO of DaimlerChrysler Services North America said, “Tracy’s institutional knowledge of our company and the automotive financial services industry, combined with her expertise in regulatory affairs, commercial transactions and corporate affairs, will serve us well in our highly competitive business environment.”
While her business skills are important—Hackman also holds an MBA—her legal skills learned at UDM have paved the way for her continued advancement. According to Hackman, “Our traditional legal education is the sound formation that we as lawyers build upon for the rest of our careers.” Those legal skills are the building blocks for on-the-job training. “It is all well and good to read about it in a book, but it is the application of the legal requirements to the actual transaction or situation that really counts.”
Hackman joined the company as staff counsel in 1987 and moved up the ranks within DaimlerChrysler Services and DaimlerChrysler Insurance Company. Her most recent position was associate general counsel and corporate secretary, DaimlerChrysler Services North America, and secretary, DaimlerChrysler Insurance Company.
The benefits of climbing the corporate ladder have been readily apparent. According to Hackman, “The further up you move in an organization, the more likely it is that you will be able to see how the overall organization functions and how all the moving parts fit to make you a global enterprise. That is challenging, while at the same time, fascinating and intriguing.”
Hackman worked while in law school at UDM, and as she explains, “I started working at law firms when I was in high school, so it is no surprise that I continued to work through law school.”
She believes that this was advantageous, because it allowed her to experience several different areas of law and then focus on the area—business law—that interested her most when she graduated from UDM.
In addition to her duties with DaimlerChrysler Financial, Hackman sits on the Board of Directors for RouteOne, a joint venture between DaimlerChrysler Financial Services, Ford Motor Credit Corporation, General Motors Acceptance Corporation, and Toyota. She also participates on DaimlerChrysler Financial’s Diversity Council and the School of Law’s Dean’s Advisory Board.
Her busy schedule means that making time for family and fun is a priority. “I really like to golf—but that takes an enormous amount of time, so a quick boat ride or two on a Sunday afternoon is just right and something we can do together with friends and family.”
