Driving Legacy Forward

Trevor Arthur, President & CEO of Porsche Cars Canada, Ltd., has more than 25 years of automotive experience. An Ontario native, Mr. Arthur began his automotive career in various sales and service roles with two other automotive brands. In 2008, he joined Porsche Cars Canada as a regional manager and then was promoted to Sales Director. Arthur moved to California in 2016 to assume the position of Vice President Area West at Porsche Cars North America, holding responsibility for twelve states in the western USA. In October 2024, he returned to Canada to step into his current role leading Porsche’s wholly owned subsidiary. Mr. Arthur holds a diploma in Business Administration, Automotive Marketing from Georgian College in Barrie, Ontario.

1. From Regional sales manager to President & CEO, you've seen the gamut of it, and in this age, in this position you're in right now, can you tell me a little bit about what innovation means to you?

Yes, absolutely. I would say, if you look at the legacy of Porsche overall, we have always combined both heritage and innovation. We think it's truly what has made Porsche, Porsche. While still ensuring we honour our heritage, we are constantly evolving, looking for improvement and developing. From a product standpoints, some great examples are things like the original 911 Turbo and then onto the PDK transmission, the dual clutch transmission. It all was race-inspired. And now, we have the 2025 911 GTS, and the T-hybrid drive train that is absolutely revolutionary for us.

So I think it's a matter of constantly evolving and making sure that we are staying ahead, but always respecting the heritage of the brand, also in terms of the customer experience. We have to have the experience that matches the vehicle itself and meets the expectations of our customers. Also, looking at our omnichannel experience, our marketplace, being where our customers are, where it's convenient, where they want to be. When you take a look at our Porsche Centre network across the country, even the design of the facilities ensures they are truly acting as hubs for the Porsche community, welcoming them, and also taking some non traditional approaches. Ultimately, it's about having a place where people simply want to stop by to experience and share the enthusiasm for the brand with like-minded enthusiasts.

2. In this wonderful building on the way in, we were talking about 2017 from concept to creation here. And you know, that's a great example how your team generates new ideas. And I'm wondering, do you have any rituals or strategies to reset creativity, to get you out of that same box that you're always in?

I would say the key is that we have a very diverse team for Canada, and that includes our leadership team. And so really, what we foster is ensuring that everyone's perspective is shared, that we have good, open debate and discussion, that we challenge one another. It's also taking a look back at everything that we do. Celebrating success is easy, but recognizing missed opportunities and outright failures is also important. And never hiding from failures. Instead, it's key to learn from them and to ensure that we minimize and deliver the best possible outcome as we move forward.

3. In what ways, if any, is Porsche Canada using AI to drive innovation. It could be some unexpected results, or even challenges that have emerged. I'd love to hear about that story.

I can only speak on behalf of Porsche Canada, and I would say that we are somewhat in the infancy stage of that. We certainly encourage it across the team, and what's great about AI is that it's freeing up resources and time with even something as simple as taking minutes from meetings and documenting decisions. And that's not necessarily possible when you've got an old black book you're taking notes in. With AI, by the time you actually leave the meeting and you come back to your office, you've got that documented decision in terms of what the discussion was. What that's really doing is freeing up the team to focus on how we can deliver more experiential events, how we can look for new opportunities, how we can take a look at utilizing that time better across the organization. So I think it is early, and I've got to be honest, but I think the key is having the courage to take on these tools, to utilize them, and leverage them across the global organization.

4. How do you actually innovate? What's the biggest challenge you face when innovating, and how do you overcome it?

I think it's a matter of never becoming complacent in terms of how we approach the business. I think you can slip into a situation where you keep doing things over and over because you've done them for many years, right? So it's really at the end about making sure that we question ourselves about whether what we're creating is still relevant. Is this still what customers want? Is this still what the market is demanding? And if it's not, then it's time to pivot quickly and constantly look for what we can do differently and better, rather than simply repeating things that were successful, but may have become somewhat stagnant and stale.

5. What does it take to build an innovative team, an innovative culture that breaks out of that and how do you foster that mindset constantly going on within the organization?

It's really developing that culture of people that do have such diverse perspectives and and, I would say, making sure that we have that healthy debate. We never just want to simply follow typical, traditional organizational structures and want to make sure that everyone has a voice, that they share their voice and respect one another. That's really the best possible outcome on any sort of topic that we're making a decision on.

6. As Porsche opens its third Experience Center in North America here in Toronto, what excites you most about this milestone and how does it reflect kind of Porsche's future vision of innovation and brand experience?

The best way to look at it is: this place is more than just a facility. We really want this to be a destination that brings everything together for our fans as well as for Porsche owners, and making sure that we really leverage it as a cutting edge location, that is somewhere your whole family wants to come to. And you know, you had a great example with your Porsche and Lamborghini poster wall growing up, and I certainly hope one day you get to own one of those vehicles.

We also want to inspire future generations, making sure that we stay very relevant and at the forefront of our dreamers' minds, because that dream often starts very early. It's fun just thinking that it often starts with that poster on the wall, and that dream continues to be fostered over the years. We want a place where people know that they are absolutely welcome to come to celebrate their love for the brand, either as an owner or an enthusiast. And it will start anywhere from walking in and spending time in the simulator lab. It might be taking a demo lap out on the circuit. It might be doing a full driving experience here, or simply just stopping by and soaking in the atmosphere. My experience for the last number of years has been our Experience Center Los Angeles, so I've seen first-hand how it fosters community and just absolutely celebrates Porsche culture. So when I see it live, I know what a Porsche Experience Center is capable of, and I know what this will actually deliver for us and our guests.