Matt Arias has been named assistant vice president of operations at America’s Auto Auction. The company describes Arias as “one of the industry’s leading experts in vehicle arbitration procedures, inspections, reconditioning, operations management and resource optimization.” Arias begins his new role with more than 20 years of auction experience. “Matt will establish stronger consistency in […] [Read More]

ADESA president John Hammer is serious about helping with the fight against type 1 diabetes. He notes that about 40,000 people in the U.S. will be newly diagnosed with the disease, “potentially impacting some of our employees, customers, and their family members," he said. “That’s why we take our fundraising partnerships with Emkay and the […] [Read More]

vAuto said Wednesday it has purchased used-car reconditioning management platform iReconCars and is relaunching it as iRecon. Co-founders Mike Boyd and Micah Tindor will stay on with vAuto parent company Cox Automotive. Boyd will be senior director of business enablement for iRecon, and Tindor will be business operations director for iRecon. The iRecon platform is […] [Read More]

Dealer-to-dealer digital auction platform TradeRev announced several executive appointments on Tuesday, including new roles for Kayne Grau and Keith Crerar.  Grau, formerly president of Data as a Service at TradeRev parent KAR Auction Services, has been named executive vice president, U.S. and commercial sales for TradeRev. Crerar has been named executive vice president of global operations […] [Read More]

Black Book pinpointed the reason why it’s been a brisk start to 2019 in the lanes. Reinforced by the assessment of an auction general manager in the Southeast, Black Book executive vice president of operations Anil Goyal described the current wholesale market situation in the latest Market Insights report released on Tuesday. “Lower floors at the […] [Read More]

The National Auto Auction Association said Friday it has promoted Tricia Heon to the new position of chief operating officer. She has served as legislative director and operations manager for eight years. The transition was effective as of Jan. 1. The association also elected Julie Picard vice president for the 2018-2019 term, and she will […] [Read More]

It’s already been an eventful 2019 for the XLerate Group. The auction company announced a pair of acquisitions on Friday, adding Morton Auto Auction (MAA) located in Morton, Ill., and Southeastern Auto Auction (SEAA) based in Savannah, Ga. With these acquisitions in the portfolio, XLerate Group now operates 12 auctions with sales in California, Florida, […] [Read More]

KAR Auction Services executive Peter Kelly has been named president of the company, a newly created position. In a news release Tuesday, KAR said the new role is, “aimed at aligning KAR’s strategy and execution to streamline operational integrations, enhance product development, and accelerate growth,” and follows years of investments and acquisitions that have significantly (and […] [Read More]

Black Book’s latest wholesale observations — both its Used Vehicle Retention Index for December as well as its Market Insights report recapping the opening week of 2019 — highlighted softening prices, reinforcing what one auction told editors that tax season might be “more of a myth than a reality.” Beginning first with the December Used […] [Read More]

You might have read in my prior editorials that I don’t believe the current physical auction is the wave of the future. Counters and their inherent lines should be a thing of the past, with counters creating the “them and us” mentality. My view is that customer service representatives should be floating through all aspects […] [Read More]