LAS VEGAS -

Jerry Hinton, the general manager of ADESA Portland, applauds the auction business for its willingness to adapt, no matter the challenge.

But to be fair, the incoming National Auto Auction Association president has a bit of resiliency of his own.

You see, Hinton and his wife, Dawn, have been busy with their bucket list as “empty-nesters” — and some of those checklist items require an adventurous, if not fearless, spirit.

Last year, they went skydiving for the first time and climbed Mount Hood. They scuba dive regularly. As Hinton said, when you have an empty nest, “you become a teenager again.”

But perhaps the best example of fortitude Hinton shared during an October interview with Auto Remarketing began, in fact, during his last year of being a teenager. 

After his freshman year at Brigham Young University, the then-19-year-old Hinton served in a mission for his church for two years in Bolivia. 

He lived some 14,000 feet above sea level in the Andes Mountains among the Aymara people, speaking not only their language fluently, but also learning Spanish for his once-a-month trips into town. 

Living in a mud hut, there was no access to electricity, running water or bathrooms. 

It was primitive, Hinton said, but well worth it. 

“It was like living in the 1800s,” he said. “You live through something like that, and you can pretty much do anything in life. 

“It was very challenging, but very rewarding to be able to give back to the very poorest, most vulnerable folks in South America.”

It wasn’t long after his mission that Hinton earned his finance degree from BYU and made his way into the auction business, joining the Brasher’s organization. 

He recently celebrated his 30th anniversary in the industry, and has spent his entire career with the Brasher’s group of auctions that were eventually bought by ADESA earlier this year. 

Hinton recalled the conferences of his early auction days.

“Every convention I went to, there was always something looming out there that was a threat to the industry, a threat to the auctions,” he said. “And instead of the auctions just sticking their heads in the sand, the auctions embraced those issues, because inevitably, it was something that the market was asking for.” 

The auction industry, Hinton said, has just grown stronger. 

And that strength is something Hinton will aim to continue as he takes on the role of NAAA president. 

Goals for NAAA

Hinton is no stranger to leadership beyond the walls of ADESA Portland or the auctions he worked at previously. 

He just finished his first term as a city counselor in Gresham, Ore. — the state’s fourth-largest city, Hinton said — and will start his second term in January. 

Meanwhile, when he’s at the helm of NAAA, Hinton said he wants to continue the safety initiatives started by 2015 president Ellie Johnson and the Auction of Year Award program for community service that 2016 president Mike Browning got started. 

Regarding the importance of safety, “there’s no boundaries with that,” he said, “and we really are creating a new standard of duty relative to personal injury. And an auction who is not abiding by some of these best practices, I think, really is putting themselves in jeopardy, legally … it really is a new standard of duty.”

Along those lines, Hinton is aiming to create industry safety awards in the next year. 

“That keeps safety on the radar each year,” he said, and gives targets for success metrics like days without injuries and the number of auction employees who are safety certified. 

Beyond safety, Hinton wants to further continuing education efforts in the auction community to help them tackle various issues. One in particular that needs attention, Hinton says, is collections at an auction. 

“There’s always that element of exposure when a dealer may go upside down or bounce a check,” he said. “How do you protect your security interest?”

Biggest challenges for auction

Asked to share the biggest challenges in the auction industry, Hinton pointed to “constantly evolving” technology, which is of great importance to the industry.

“Most of the services the auctions currently provide, and some that are still being developed, will become faster and more efficient,” he said. “There are so many pinch-points in the marketplace with auctions, but they’re becoming less and less as these technological advances continue and those pinch-points become fewer and fewer. 

“However, the core of any auction’s success is the relationships it maintains with its customers,” he said. “That will never change.”

The regulatory environment can certainly be a head-scratcher, and NAAA offers its resources and its partnerships with NADA and NIADA to help dealers stay ahead of the game. 

“The auctions are resilient and adaptive and have been able to navigate any regulatory changes without materially sacrificing their performance or levels of service,” he said. 

Hinton knows a thing or two about the law, himself. 

While working at Brasher’s Sacramento, the organization paid for him to go to law school in the evenings at the McGeorge School of Law at University of the Pacific in Sacramento, something for which Hinton expressed gratitude. 

Hinton ended up finishing law school while working in Oregon. And while he never took the bar, he found that “law school’s a great business tool.” 

It can help a businessperson navigate the legal process and overcome intimidation that complicated legal issues might bring, he said. 

“There are questions that have legal implications on a daily basis. And again, some people can stick their head in the sand and be afraid of the legal process … and not be as aggressive as you could possibly be. But by not being intimidated by the legal system, you can be aggressive and know what your limitations are,” Hinton said. “Relative to the collection issue, it allows you to help mitigate and manage lawsuits that you may or may not have in certain states.”

Of course, the auction business is where his heart is. Asked what he enjoys most about it, Hinton said it’s the people.

“But what I really like is to be able to wear all the different hats. You get to be the manager of people. You get to be the finance guy. You get to be the marketing guy. You get to wear the legal hat. You get to wear all these different hats,” he said. “Of course, you have lots of employees and lots of resources, but you’re navigating these decisions through all these various platforms.” 

And he will take it to an even broader scale this year as NAAA president.

Just another adventure to approach with resiliency.