AutoIMS created a new position on its leadership team but didn’t have to go far to find the professional for the role, choosing one of the first employees.
On Tuesday, AutoIMS appointed Robert Williams as its chief technology officer. In his new role, Williams takes on comprehensive responsibility for the entire technology team, including development, database, systems administration, and testing.
The company explained the promotion recognizes Williams’s ability to help shape short- and long-term strategy while also managing a diverse and highly-skilled technology team.
Prior to this appointment, Williams served as the chief software architect for the company, managing development work and transforming remarketing industry challenges into meaningful technology solutions. Williams is credited for designing and overseeing the development of most software and features benefitting AutoIMS clients today.
“Robert’s 20 years of success demonstrates a legacy of growth, innovation and passion,” AutoIMS chief executive officer Venkat Krishnamoorthy said. “Robert enjoys working with our clients to solve problems and believes passionately that we can help many more people do their best work by removing technological barriers.”
Following his time at MIT earning a chemical engineering degree, Williams worked at Honeywell on multi-variable control systems to help optimize refinery and paper mill operations. At AutoIMS, Williams learned SQL, servlets, jsp, javascript and numerous other burgeoning technologies over the years.
Asked about his goals in his new role, Williams said, “I want to work with Venkat and our entire team to move AutoIMS strongly and stably into the coming decade. We’ll continue to deliver reliable processes, new features, and dependable client support, striving to be the provider of choice for our industry.”
An executive who previously was with a member of the Cox Automotive family of companies now has a leading role with a division within KAR Auction Services.
According to a news release distributed on Wednesday, Preferred Warranties (PWI) announced the addition of Allison Marley as the company’s new vice president of sales. In this role, Marley will lead the PWI sales and training team, interact with key customers and partners and activate the national sales structure through her team of six regional sales managers.
“Allison is a dynamic and strategic leader who will accelerate and revolutionize PWI’s sales strategy,” PWI president Edmund Field said. “She has the vision to create and execute momentum in existing markets and launch strategy for new market expansion.
“By developing and empowering the sales team, she will drive revenue, increase market share and achieve company growth metrics,” Field continued.
Marley has more than 15 years of experience in the automotive industry. Most recently, as senior director of performance management at NextGear Capital, she pivoted the company’s business methodology from a transactional sales process to a consultative sales approach. Her background also includes marketing, operations, sales, and financial management positions for several automakers, including Ford, General Motors, Mercedes-Benz and Toyota.
Established in 1992, PWI offers extended service contracts to more than 3,000 independent dealers. With a full menu of service contracts and extensive coverage levels, PWI products are designed to drive high levels of confidence, value and revenue for partner dealers.
To supplement these product offerings, PWI provides service and training to assist dealers selling these products, which in turn can create value and enhanced satisfaction for their customers.
For more information, visit www.warrantys.com.
Brian Skutta’s professional automotive resume includes five companies — TrueCar, AutoAlert, VinSolutions, AutoTrader.com and now Spireon.
Spireon announced on Wednesday the unification of its auto finance as well as franchised and buy-here, pay-here dealer product offerings into a combined automotive portfolio along with the appointment of Skutta as its president.
Under Skutta’s leadership, Spireon said its automotive-focused segments will leverage its product lineup and already deep bench of industry experts to best serve its customers into the future.
“Brian has extensive experience in the automotive sector and an outstanding history of driving both top and bottom line results while ensuring the customer’s needs remain top of mind,” Spireon chief executive officer Kevin Weiss said in a news release.
“With two flagship products — Kahu and GoldStar — meeting the connected vehicle needs of our automotive customers, Brian’s expertise and unique vantage point will help elevate the business to its highest potential,” Weiss continued.
Before joining Spireon, Skutta was executive vice president of dealer sales and service at TrueCar, playing a pivotal role in the development and execution of the company’s dealer relations turnaround and product portfolio expansion. He previously held c-suite and executive leadership positions at AutoAlert, VinSolutions and AutoTrader.com.
“Spireon has a proven track record of exceptional leadership in the connected vehicle space, having launched the first truly connected solution of its kind — Kahu,” Skutta said.
“I’m joining the company at a pivotal time and look forward to helping grow our already impressive customer base of over 20,000 companies, boost our contributions to the industry and further solidify our commitment to the companies we serve,” he went on to say.
Learn more at www.spireon.com.
Digital automotive marketplace TrueCar appointed Noel Watson as executive vice president and chief financial officer, with responsibility for leading TrueCar’s financial operations, including accounting and investor relations.
Watson, who spent the last 13 years with online travel platform TripAdvisor, will be based in Santa Monica, Calif. He will report to TrueCar president and chief executive officer, Chip Perry.
As vice president of finance and chief accounting officer at TripAdvisor, Watson oversaw the company’s global accounting operations and corporate financial planning and analysis function.
Watson began his career as a certified public accountant at Arthur Andersen and went on to hold management positions at Boston-based technology companies ArrAy Inc. and Way Systems before he started with TripAdvisor in 2006.
“Noel is a seasoned financial executive who comes to TrueCar with more than 20 years of financial operations and leadership experience,” Perry said in a news release. “His depth of experience with two-sided digital marketplaces that have complex revenue and acquisition models will provide an outstanding background for driving TrueCar’s financial growth and prosperity. He will play a vital role as we accelerate product and technology innovation toward becoming a true end-to-end shopping-to-showroom car buying experience.”
“I’m excited to be joining TrueCar during this dynamic period of innovation for the company in its mission to dramatically improve the way people discover, buy and sell cars,” Watson said. “Having worked at a marketplace leader in the travel segment for over a decade, I look forward to bringing this experience to TrueCar’s digital automotive platform.”
E-commerce company RumbleOn experienced strong growth in 2018, and the company’s founder, chairman and chief executive officer Marshall Chesrown said in a news release that Peter Levy was “instrumental in the execution of our vision and continual success of this company.”
RumbleOn has rewarded Levy for that work. The company announced the promotion of Levy to chief operating officer.
Levy, who since November 2017 has served as RumbleOn senior vice president of operations, will lead day-to-day operations and overarching strategy for the sales, inventory management, dealer relations, and marketing departments.
In the senior vice president of operations role, Levy helped lead the acquisition of Wholesale Inc. RumbleOn said in a news release that Levy guided the company through its expansion into the pre-owned automotive market.
“With his results-oriented attitude and proven track record of collaborative leadership across our various teams, I have every confidence in Peter as he expands his role within RumbleOn and joins our executive team,” said Chesrown of RumbleOn, which says it uses technology to simplify how dealers and consumers buy, sell, trade, or finance pre-owned vehicles through RumbleOn’s 100% online marketplace.
“I’m incredibly proud of the staggering growth we’ve seen and the world-class talent behind those results,’’ Levy said. “The RumbleOn team will continue to disrupt an outdated industry. Whether that’s through best-in-class technology, supply chain innovations, or through our unique distribution network, it’s a privilege to be on board for the ride.”
In his 10 years as president and chief executive officer with J.D. Power, Finbarr O’Neill helped lead the company through a time of expansion into data and analytics, as well as the integration of acquisitions such as the NADA Used Car Guide and the used car pricing consumer website, National Appraisal Guides.
Now, with the announcement that Larry Dorfman has decided to step down after 35 years as chairman and chief executive officer of APCO Holdings, LLC to assume a role as a senior adviser to the company, O’Neill will succeed Dorfman.
As new chairman and chief executive officer at APCO, O’Neill will focus on operational effectiveness and strategy to strengthen APCO’s position in providing vehicle service contracts, ancillary products and administrative services.
APCO Holdings, LLC is known for its brands EasyCare, GWC Warranty, SAVY, Covideo and MotorTrend Certified Vehicles. The brands serve the automotive retail industry through franchised dealers, independent dealers, OEMs and other distribution channels.
In his past position as chief executive officer of Hyundai Motor America, O’Neill helped lead a brand turnaround, and he also served as chief executive officer for Mitsubishi North America and Reynolds & Reynolds.
Dorfman said in a news release that O’Neill “has a proven track record as a CEO in large companies in the automotive business.”
“He is already a part of our team and knows our company, so he is well positioned to serve as a catalyst to help take APCO to next level and that is exactly what we intend to do. As we grow, we intend to continue to be innovators and leaders in our sector of the industry while maintaining our claims and customer service excellence. To meet these expectations while managing our growth, we needed a person like Fin who understands the needs of the industry and unique culture we have built for our employees.”
“I’m excited to accept the baton in this time of great change in the automotive business,” O’Neill said. "It’s especially exciting to be with a team devoted to helping dealers navigate these changes. Consumer behaviors are driving tremendous change, not only in their digital shopping habits but in their desire to limit risk across their lives. There is a real opportunity to meet their need to ensure against unexpected outlays in connection with vehicle ownership.”
According to a news release distributed on Friday, digital speech analytics expert Tony Colan has joined the Proactive Dealer Solutions team as director of enterprise sales.
Proactive Dealer Solutions (PDS) uses deep machine learning, artificial intelligence (AI) and predictive analytics that can discover patterns using voice recognition to communicate more effectively with automotive consumers and learn from the vast amounts of data collected to set more appointments and sell more vehicles.
PDS, based near Charlotte, N.C., is an international firm that has worked with more than 3,000 automotive retailers across North America.
Colan comes to PDS from VoiceBase, an information and technology services firm where he served as enterprise sales director and specialized in speech analytics and API integration.
PDS has leveraged the use of AI to listen to incoming and outgoing dealership calls to better understand dealership-consumer communications and act more efficiently. For instance, if a sales representative fails to set an appointment or gather crucial information, within minutes an email is sent directly to a manager who can act to rectify the situation.
“Opportunities abound in this marketplace,” Colan said. “The possibilities for using AI to listen to and act on data gathered from voice communication are endless. I look forward to sharing the power of these technical systems with vendors in this space.”
PDS managing partner Lawson Owen noted that Colan will be marketing PDS’ speech analytics platform to the major automotive search directories, marketing agencies, phone vendors and CRM providers that can benefit tremendously from the proof metrics the platform offers.
Owen insisted lead providers can verify what transpired from the calls they generated and marketing agencies can assist with marketing optimization for their dealer clients.
“Tony is a fantastic addition to our team,” Owen said. “He has more than a decade of experience in this field, and will be able to jump start our platform sales.”
Colan added, “Even with all the costs dealers put into infrastructure, personnel, marketing and technology, still 20 percent of calls to the dealership are lost, dropped, or abandoned. PDS has positioned itself to help dealers solve this problem and maximize performance.”
Research and insights company Ipsos has appointed Jacob George as executive vice president and leader of its U.S. automotive quality business. George, who most recently served as vice president and general manager of J.D. Power Asia Pacific, will lead the quality measurement and improvement system that Ipsos has created for the U.S. and global automotive markets.
Ipsos said in a news release that the appointment of George is part of its commitment to “leverage its transformative momentum” as a professional services firm and its expanded scale to focus on bringing more information to clients, more quickly.
The quality measurement and improvement system, along with Ipsos’ understanding of changing consumer requirements at a time of disruption in the automotive industry, reinforces the company’s dedication to understanding people, markets, brands and society, a news release explained. Ipsos said that helps it deliver information and analysis to more easily navigate the complex world and inspire its clients to make smarter decisions.
At J.D. Power Asia Pacific, George oversaw the region’s research and consulting business. He has worked on the manufacturer and agency sides throughout his career, including roles at General Motors in the areas of manufacturing, engineering and marketing. On the agency side he worked in quality measurement and consulting to help manufacturers improve.
George has “created consumer understanding” for clients in the United States, Germany, China and Japan while also living in those countries.
Ipsos RDA president Frank Forkin is happy to see George join the company. “His deep global background in quality measurement and improvement sets Ipsos up well to serve our clients and to help them understand consumers, and position themselves for success,” Forkin said in a news release.
George said the field of quality measurement and improvement is changing globally. The field, he said, “has become wrapped up in the disruptors facing the automotive industry today: increased competition, decreased differentiation, globalization, connectivity, electrification, autonomous features and shared mobility.” He said he looks forward to helping automotive manufacturers, suppliers and dealers “understand consumers better and incorporate their needs early in the product development process.”
Carsharing marketplace HyreCar appointed Jay Vijayan to its board of directors effective April 25. From 2012 to 2016, Vijayan was chief information officer for Tesla, and he is currently founder and chief executive officer of Tekion Corp., a Silicon Valley startup in the business applications and automotive retail experience sectors.
Vijayan’s more than 20 years of technology platform, product development and leadership experience includes his time at Tesla, where he and his team built and scaled Tesla's digital and information platform and systems, which HyreCar said fueled the company’s “hyper-growth phase.”
Before his time at Tesla, Vijayan oversaw VMware’s business applications development group during what HyreCar said was a period of accelerated growth for the company. During that time, VMware scaled revenues from approximately $700 million in 2007 to nearly $4 billion in 2012.
Vijayan also previously led product development teams at Oracle for more than seven years.
Vijayan also serves on the board of NIC Inc., and HyreCar said he is known for building “simple and highly scalable technology platforms and solutions” that the company says transforms, scales businesses and enables operational efficiency.
“I understand the need and potential for a robust rideshare marketplace that brings significant value for all stakeholders of this ecosystem, Vijayan said in a news release. “After meeting with the HyreCar team, I quickly realized HyreCar’s tremendous and unique value proposition for this need and the team’s potential to deliver. I am thrilled for the opportunity to help guide the company on its journey,”
“I’m looking forward to working with Jay and the rest of our board of directors,” said HyreCar chief executive officer Joe Furnari. “Jay is a key addition that reinforces our strategy with auto manufacturers and auto dealers; he also brings extensive experience scaling technology platforms and bringing the best of the technology world to the automotive industry. Surrounding HyreCar with experienced individuals has been one of my key objectives, and leveraging different perspectives on the industry is what has made us a leader in the space and will continue our trail blazing into the future.”
Cox Automotive has its first-ever chief data officer, and filling that new role is Mark Luber, who comes over from LexisNexis Risk Solutions.
Luber spent 15 years there, most recently as senior vice president of global product and analytics.
He will report to chief product officer Marianne Johnson and lead the company’s “data strategy, helping uncover new opportunities to monetize existing data and working to bring new data solutions to market,” Cox Automotive said in a news release.
Luber will also head up the company’s data business, data roadmap and data governance.
Reporting to Luber will be Woodson Savage, who is Cox Automotive’s associate vice president of enterprise data product management, and more than 150 experts in fields such as data science, product management, strategy, enablement, operations and analytics.
“As the first chief data officer for Cox Automotive, Mark’s key objectives will be to unlock the power of Cox Automotive’s unprecedented data assets, accelerate our journey to become a truly data-driven business, and find new opportunities to monetize data products,” Johnson said in a news release.
Luber’s experience also includes working as an advisory board member the non-profit Neighborhood Nexus for nearly a decade. That organization aims to “bring data, research and knowledge that creates a data-driven decision-making culture in the Atlanta region,” Cox Automotive said in its news release.
