Zuroick’s profession at AstraZeneca spanned 26-and-a-half years in numerous financial capacities. She was a nominee for the 2022 Skilled Fleet Manager of the Yr Award.
Photo: Barbara Zuroick
Barbara Zuroick, U.S. fleet & safety manager at AstraZeneca, retired from the worldwide biopharamceutical company on June 2023. Zuroick was recognized as a frontrunner in sustainability, championing AstraZeneca’s transition to a zero-emission fleet. During her tenure, Zuroick was chargeable for transitioning 90% of the U.S. industrial ICE vehicle fleet to hybrid vehicles by year-end 2022.
Zuroick’s profession at AstraZeneca spanned 26-and-a-half years in numerous financial capacities: starting from senior financial analyst, various roles in field sales and business support, and most recently because the fleet and safety manager within the procurement group.
In 2022, Zuroick was one in every of the nominees for Auotmotive Fleet’s Professionl Fleet Manager of the Yr Award.
Transition to Zero-Emission Fleet
During this time, AstraZeneca launched its “Ambition Zero Carbon” project to introduce electric vehicles in fleet operations, which incorporates installing chargers within the homes of worker drivers. Between 2021-2023, roughly 30% of AstraZeneca’s U.S. fleet of nearly 5,000 vehicles were converted to EVs. Her efforts landed AstraZeneca’s U.S. fleet the No.10 rating on Automotive Fleet magazine’s Top 50 Green Fleet listing.
Earlier, AstraZeneca demonstrated leadership in committing to the transition to an EV fleet by joining the EV100 initiative. To assist AstraZeneca meet its corporate goal of zero-carbon emissions by 2025, Zuroick’s involvement began with an in-depth assessment of the corporate fleet. She analyzed fleet usage to discover the vehicles best suited to transition to EVs.
She also identified quite a few internal business partners to help AstraZeneca on this effort starting from procurement, finance, internal communications, and human resources, in addition to partnering with EV OEMs, together with its fleet management company, Wheels.
Earlier, in 2017, Zuroick launched an aggressive Go Green initiative to convert the whole AstraZeneca U.S. fleet to hybrids. Today, with 90% of the AstraZeneca U.S. fleet currently comprised of hybrid vehicles, its carbon emissions were reduced by 173 tons and the fleet’s average fuel economy was increased to 38 mpg.
AZ Wins Global Fleet Team of Yr Award
Just prior to Zuroick’s retirement, AstraZeneca won the 2023 Global Fleet Team of the Yr Award presented by Automotive Fleet magazine on the Global Fleet Conference in Miami. Among the many specifics cited were AstraZeneca’s leadership in sustainability, fleet safety, cost containment, the adoption of technology-based solutions, and its global collaboration with its quite a few partners to attain its corporate goal to be carbon neutral by 2025 and carbon negative by 2030.
Along with the electrification of its fleet and the installation of home charging units, AstraZeneca plans to leverage other advanced technologies, equivalent to telematics, implementing data-driven decision-making to enhance fleet performance.
Prior to joining AstraZeneca, Zuroick worked as a staff accountant at The Latest York Times, Sports Magazine Group from 1994-1996. Earlier, Zuroick worked in industrial banking as a financial analyst for J.P. Morgan from 1993-1994.
In 2011, Zuroick earned a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree with a 4.0 grade point average from Wilmington University. Earlier, Zuroick graduated from Holy Family University in 1993 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting.
This Article First Appeared At www.automotive-fleet.com
