LAX: My Celebrity Sighting

Ten years of going to LAX on the regular and this week, I finally got my first celebrity sighting. ✨

Reading Time: 2 minutes

The Place.

I recognized him at a moment that matters most in one’s travel journey: the TSA checkpoint.  My jaw dropped as I mouthed his name. 😮

The Celebrity.

My kind of celebrity is the quintessential American automotive CEO: Scott Keogh of Scout Automotive. ⚡️🇺🇸🇩🇪🇨🇦

Let me explain: he is a perfectly groomed American car guy with an impeccable German pedigree. He is a key North American player in the race to electrification. And he uses the word love. 💚 

Now watch, we are all about to fall in love with the great American tradition that is the pick-up truck.  

All over again.  Full electric style.  

Scout is a “more than $100M” investment for a new EV platform for a new truck to serve a new market segment.  In other words: it’s just for us in the US.  And it’s part of a big market share strategy under Global VW Group priority #4: North America; target: 10 points. Dankeschön! 🖤❤️💛

But it’s so much more than that.  For sure: it’s about the truck.  The throwback to the very beginning the history of the SUV is both nostalgia and hope, packaged in equilibrium, at a perfect moment in time. Yet beyond all that swagger, I believe it offers the opportunity for a brand new type of connection, with folks.  Also at a perfect moment in time.  There is only one guy who can make that magic happen: my celebrity sighting. 🤩

This is the kind of story that moves me.  Moments that matter.

The Exchange.

“Do I know you?!”, he said in a super friendly and inviting demeanor.

No, well except for here and on LinkedIn. 👋🏼

Ensued a friendly chat between 2 humans journeying through security.  Except one of them is me and the other is Scott Keogh! 

The Scene.

And for me, at least, a story-worthy exchange.  ✌🏼

The End.

Long deplaned from his first row seat, I smiled as I saw him wait for every single member of his team to gather gate-side and proceed to the people-mover together.  At 1AM.  No wonder everyone I know in this small town automotive that is the Herndon/Reston metropolis always speaks so highly of him.  

The Future.

Keep showing us the love Scott Keogh.  We are counting on your leadership. 🙏🏼

And should you find yourself needing experienced hands for future moments that matter, I always land right here, at IAD. ♥️

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Caroline Trudeau is a marketing executive, an experience innovator and a writer. She has spent 25 years delivering of first-of-kind digital products, services, brands, campaigns and culture transformation initiatives at some of the world’s most powerful brands, including: IBM, Slalom, BMW, Volkswagen, ExxonMobil, Omnicom, Capita, Hilton, lululemon and AOL. She is Co-Founder of pageight, a female-led experience strategy consultancy dedicated to exponentially growing the diversity of C-Suites everywhere.