For the Victorian Automotive Chamber of Commerce, that moment has arrived in the form of Courtney Youngman.
Courtney, who grew up in Seymour, has just taken the chair of the VACC's Used Car Traders Division, becoming the first woman to hold the role in the organisation's history.
Her path into the automotive industry is one of those stories that could only happen to someone who was simply meant for it.
It started with her father, John Youngman, who introduced her to the industry and instilled in her something that has stayed with her ever since: a belief in backing yourself and never underestimating what you’re worth.
That foundation proved to be everything. Work experience at Seymour Toyota during high school was supposed to be a brief detour.
Two decades later, Courtney runs three businesses as founder and managing director:
- LMCT Accounts, a specialist automotive bookkeeping firm that now serves more than 100 clients regularly;
- Ladies of LMCT, a full-service consulting company that handles everything an LMCT holder could need — the name came naturally, because clients kept saying “Just call the ladies, they know it all”; and
- LMCT Auto Solutions, a prestige car dealership trading across a broad price range.
She started bookkeeping for dealers in her spare time, but that almost undersells it.
What she was really doing was learning the industry from the inside out, dealership by dealership, understanding not just the numbers but the pressures, the quirks, the compliance headaches, and the ambitions that sit behind every motor car trader's ledger.
That knowledge is not the kind you acquire in a classroom. You earn it.
Courtney’s appointment to the UCTD chair also reflects a broader and deliberate shift within VACC's committee structure.
Across the organisation, a newer generation of members is taking on leadership responsibilities, people who are active business owners and practitioners, not just figureheads.
The used car sector is navigating genuine complexity right now.
The electrification of the new-car market is beginning to flow through to used-car stock in ways that dealers are still learning to manage, including new vehicle categories, different service needs, changed consumer expectations, and a compliance environment that hasn't always kept pace.
Having a chair who understands both the financial mechanics and the operational realities of the trade is not a luxury. It's exactly what the division needs.
Courtney’s three businesses give her a perspective that few people in the industry can match.
She sees the compliance and licensing demands that LMCT holders face daily, the bookkeeping and financial pressures that quietly make or break a dealership, and the retail end of the market where those pressures ultimately play out on the forecourt.
That 360-degree view is precisely what a committee chair needs to do the job well.
– Article courtesy of VACC
