Kimberly J. McWaters
President & CEO, Fresh Start Women’s Foundation
The summer after high school, Kim McWaters learned she was pregnant. She decided to keep her baby and forfeit a full-ride scholarship to ASU. At age 18, like her mother before her, Kim became a teenage mom with no education, no work experience, and no marketable skills.
In 1984, a year after her first son was born, Kim became a receptionist at Universal Technical Institute (UTI). While raising her son as a single mom, Kim worked on her college degree and started climbing the ranks at UTI. She was named president in 2000 and chief executive officer in 2003. She led the company’s IPO and became Arizona’s first female CEO of a public company. UTI became the nation’s leading provider of automotive technician training. In 2019, Kim retired as CEO and remained on the company’s board until March 2022. She currently serves as a director for Penske Automotive Group (NYSE: PAG) and WillScot Mobile Mini Holdings (NASDAQ: WSC).
Kim recognizes how fortunate she is that the former CEO of UTI took a chance on a single mom with no job experience in 1984. Access to employment, education, and resources gave Kim the opportunities she needed to build a brighter future for herself and her family.
Helping others transform their lives for the better has been a central focus of Kim’s career and life. At UTI, she partnered with industry leaders such as BMW, Ford, Mercedes-Benz, and Porsche, to train and prepare nontraditional students for well-paying careers in the transportation industry. With a mission to change lives through education, UTI graduated more than 220,000 technicians during Kim’s tenure.
For the past three decades, Kim has actively served on the boards of multiple non-profit organizations to help at-risk women and children, including Fresh Start Women’s Foundation and the Boys and Girls Clubs of the Valley. She is also a founding member of the TechForce Foundation, which provides students access to education and career pathways in the skilled trades.
Kim joined Fresh Start as its President and CEO in February 2021, after serving nearly 20 years on its board of directors. Fresh Start - a Phoenix-based non-profit serving more than 3,000 women each year and 50,000+ women during its 30-year history – primarily serves women just like Kim was in 1984. The majority are single moms earning less than $25,000 per year who desperately need someone to believe in them and to provide the access and resources necessary to build a brighter future for themselves and their children.
As a business leader and philanthropist, Kim has received numerous honors, including: Most Influential Corporate Board Directors, WomenInc. Magazine; Most Admired CEOs and 40 Under 40 by the Phoenix Business Journal; 50 Most Influential Women in Arizona, AZ Business Magazine; Distinguished Women Award, Northwood University; Bill Shover Leadership Award, Vitalant; and Founders’ Circle and Visionary awards, Fresh Start.
Kim lives in North Phoenix with her husband, Chris. She has three adult sons and three beautiful grandchildren.
