OVERLAND PARK, Kan. -

NCM Associates hired four new associates to serve its retail automotive clientele, including the franchised and buy-here, pay-here dealer segments.

Joining the company as executive conference moderators for the 20 Groups division under Kevin Cunningham are Paul Kechnie, Joe Basil and Gene Daughtry. The company said Steve Hall has joined the faculty of the NCM Institute Center for Automotive Retail Excellence as an instructor reporting to Garry House.

The four newest NCM associates all have deep retail automotive management experience. They join NCM to meet the need for increasing interest in NCM's 20 Group programs, and the company is expanding its training programs for franchised dealership fixed operations and BHPH stores.

With more than 25 years of successful fixed operations management experience, Hall is now leveraging his expertise and leadership skills in the classroom as NCM Institute's newest full-time faculty member. In his new position, he will work side-by-side with Robin Cunningham as a full-time instructor with special emphasis in service, parts and body shop management disciplines.

Hall will be integral in the development of several new training initiatives, including express service management, collision management, and parts and accessory management.

Hall formerly served in various fixed operations management positions with the Wolfe Automotive Group since 1997 and is based in the Kansas City area.

Kechnie brings deep retail dealership experience to his role as an NCM executive conference moderator, having worked in every dealership department and owning two franchised dealerships in his automotive retail career. Kechnie joined NCM in June and now serves several private dealership groups and eight NCM 20 Groups for Acura, Chrysler, Ford, General Motors, Hyundai, Kia, Porsche and Volkswagen dealers.

Immediately prior to joining NCM, Kechnie was an NADA 20 group consultant. Kechnie is based in Austin, Texas.

Coming on board more recently, Basil also brings his dealership ownership expertise to NCM as an executive conference moderator. Joe comes to NCM from his family dealership, Basil Automotive Group in Buffalo, N.Y., where he served in a special project management capacity, managing multiple projects involving operations turnaround, culture change, expense restructuring, finance, acquisition and divestiture, and human resources and regulatory compliance. Basil also handled the family business buy/sells.

With the addition of Daughtry, NCM will double its capacity to service BHPH operators. Daughtry will join Brent Carmichael as a dedicated BHPH specialist.

Daughtry has 22 years of automotive retail experience with specialization in sales, finance and special finance for franchised and BHPH dealership operations. Like Carmichael, Daughtry will serve as a BHPH executive conference moderator, trainer and consultant as NCM expands its suite of BHPH services to that segment of the automotive industry.

Daughtry, based in Russellville, Ark., is currently working to develop two new BHPH education programs for the NCM Institute with delivery in June.

Paul Faletti Jr., NCM's president and chief executive officer, said of the addition of the four newest associates: "We're very pleased to bring on board four very different, but highly-competent retail experts to serve our clients and help NCM deliver on our strategic promise to be the leading industry resource on dealership operations improvement.

"Steve, Paul, Joe and Gene all bring valuable experience and perspectives to our already deep bench of retail experts and their collective contributions will assist us as we continue to grow and expand our services to the retail automotive dealer community," Faletti added.