The Columbus Fair Auto Auction has named a new director of dealer sales to start the new year.
As of Jan. 4, CFAA’s new director of dealer sales is Brent Branson, who will report to Tim French, the company’s vice president of sales.
“Brent brings a disciplined dimension to our team,” said Greg Levi, CFAA’s chief operating officer. “I have known Brent for years and his relationship skills are as good as his attention to detail. He focuses on the right things, be it customer development, employee mentoring, or operational efficiencies.”
Branson brings over 10 years of automotive industry experience to the position, including time spent as a buyer and as a team leader. Most recently, Branson was the senior buyer at CarMax, where he led teams at various auctions, including Columbus Fair and the CarMax dealership group.
“I am a car guy by trade, but my passion is making people successful,” Branson said.
Final days of this year’s Warren Young Sr. scholarships
In other auction news, the NAAA Warren Young Sr. Scholastic Foundation makes 12 scholarships available each year to eligible NAAA member auctions and corporate office full-time employees, their children, stepchildren and grandchildren.
The window for this year’s scholarships ends Feb. 1.
Four of the scholarships, each worth $3,000, are for two-year schools or auto-related degrees at vocational/technical schools. The other eight are each worth $5,000 for use at four-year schools.
For more information on the program or to start the application process, click here.
The folks at the Carolina Auto Auction find themselves in a “bittersweet” transition period as they celebrate the career of their fleet/lease manager, Sal Terranova, who is headed for retirement.
Announced by the company on Wednesday, CAA’s well-known Terranova is succeeded in his position by Joe LeMonds, who has been shadowing Terranova in the position for the last six months in preparation for the transition.
Looking back at his career, Terranova highlighted some of his fondest memories at the South Carolina auction.
“Certainly the thing that I have always really enjoyed has been testing market modifications to see if there was any way to enhance the value of a vehicle,” Terranova said. “Testing the value of a wholesale certification program; running vehicles with / through a manufacturer’s captive remarketing program; pushing the Internet and simulcast opportunities; testing the impact of various repairs; etc., all have been a lot of fun, and very mentally engaging. But the most rewarding part of the job has probably been the ability to communicate the results of some of those value-enhancing experiments with other sellers, and clients in the business.”
After retiring at the end of the year, Terranova looks forward to spending time with his wife, five children and seven grandchildren.
Continuing that theme of looking forward, Terranova says that the biggest change during his career that will continue to affect the auction industry is online buying.
“Buyers can now view and interact with a vehicle online — from viewing a CR to the consummation of a buying decision without ever leaving their home or office,” he said. “However, I also believe that the physical auction will also continue to grow in that there will always be a number of buyers that want to physically inspect the vehicle, and interact with the market live.”
In other CAA news, the auction’s next major sale will be hosted on Jan. 6 with its Tax-Time Sales Event that will continue through Fe. 17. Dealers will have the opportunity to win a share of $30,000 in cash and prizes and stock up on vehicle inventory. Those most interested in picking up some pickups can check out CAA’s Truck Sale on Feb. 9.
For more information on CAA, visit its site here.
KAR Auction Services announced the appointment of two new vice presidents on Friday. The company outlined that Toby Hahn has been hired as its new vice president of total rewards while Brad Jokovich has been promoted to the position of vice president of human resources.
Jim Hallett, the company’s chairman and chief executive officer, welcomed the two to their new positions within the company.
“Our talented employees play a key role in the success of the company,” said Hallett. “We are dedicated to ensuring that we continue to hire and retain the right individuals in the right positions. Toby and Brad will contribute greatly to the growth and accomplishments of the organization.”
In his new position as vice president of total rewards, Hahn will lead all activities regarding the company’s compensation, benefits and human resource management systems while also managing a team responsible for planning, designing, developing and executing strategic compensation and benefit programs across KAR’s various business units and locations.
Hahn's prior posts include time as vice president of global compensation benefits and human resources systems at Remy International, senior financial analyst of capital projects at Exempla Healthcare, and senior financial analyst at Heritage Environmental Services.
Jokovich, as vice president of human resources, will lead the HR team throughout North America and the United Kingdom. He is also now responsible for talent management, succession planning, training and development, and organizational and operational effectiveness in the HR department. Jokovich most recently served as the director of human resources at the Automotive Finance Corp.
“Toby and Brad bring many years of experience in human resources, and we are confident that their expertise as human resource leaders will assist in strengthening the success of the company’s recruitment and business initiatives,” said Lisa Price, KAR’s executive vice president of human resources.
In other KAR-related news, ADESA announced on Thursday that the company’s ongoing support of the Youth Automotive Training Center has earned the company “top contributor” status with the organization.
Over the course of the last 17 years of partnership with the center, ADESA has donated $1.8 million to the organization, which is a tuition-free, hands-on program that teaches basic automotive repair, job readiness and life management skills to at-risk young adults in the Deerfield Beach, Fla. area.
The center was established by Jim Moran, the founder of JM Family Enterprises, in 1984.
“Jim Moran was a pioneer in our industry with an incredibly generous spirit,” said Bob Rauschenberg, executive vice president of sales, marketing and special services for ADESA. “He was always so appreciative of ADESA’s donations — he treated us like rock stars.”
To learn more about the Youth Automotive Training Center, click here.
CDK Global chief executive officer Steven Anenen will step down from his leadership post on June 30, the company announced, and taking on the CEO role will be Brian MacDonald, a current member of CDK’s board of directors.
The company laid out its leadership transition plan in a news release on Friday, explaining that MacDonald will become president on January 1 and work with Anenen during the transition process.
MacDonald’s similar experience includes time in president and CEO roles with Hertz Rental Equipment Corp., ETP Holdco Corp. and Sunoco.
Leslie Brun, CDK's non-executive chairman of the board, said in the release: “Steve has been critical to building CDK's business and guiding CDK's transformation following its successful spinoff from ADP, and thanks to his leadership, CDK is well positioned for continued success. On behalf of the board and management team, we are grateful for Steve's numerous contributions and accomplishments over his career and look forward to continuing to work with him as we implement this succession plan.”
Anenen added: “It has been a privilege and a highlight of my professional career to work alongside the dedicated and talented associates at CDK and to serve our clients worldwide. Since our successful spinoff from ADP, we have developed and are executing a transformation plan that will serve as a foundation for continued value creation and success, and I believe now is the logical time for me to begin the process of turning the reins over to CDK's next CEO. I am committed to supporting a seamless transition and have great confidence in CDK's ability to continue to thrive under Brian's leadership.”
Commenting further on MacDonald’s appointment, Brun said: “The selection of Brian to succeed Steve reflects the Board's deliberate and focused succession plan. We have worked closely with Brian since his appointment to CDK's bard this past June, and have experienced firsthand his strong leadership abilities, his financial acumen, and his understanding of the automotive and technology sectors. We are fortunate to have found someone of Brian's caliber and are confident he is the right leader to help enhance value and drive the company forward into its next phase of success."
MacDonald said: “I am honored to be selected to succeed Steve as CDK's next CEO. Under Steve's leadership, CDK has established a track record of strong execution and I hope to build on his legacy as I step into my new role. Over the coming months, I will be working closely with Steve and the rest of the management team to ensure a smooth leadership transition. My focus will be executing CDK's transformation plan while positioning CDK to continue delivering long-term value for shareholders, clients and associates well into the future.”
Larry H. Miller Dealerships announced several high-profile changes to its executive-level structure this week, including the hiring of a new vice president and two internal promotions in the area of search engine marketing and optimization.
Starting with the hire, on Monday LHM announced Veronika Egginton as its new vice president of digital development, where she will be responsible for overseeing the digital marketing department for LHM’s 54 stores. She will also be responsible for defining the digital strategy for each store and ensuring proper execution of all deliverables through her team.
Paul Nygaard, senior vice president of marketing LHM Dealerships, made the hiring announcements.
“Veronika’s vast industry experience and her process-driven approach to digital marketing will be valuable as she leads digital strategy for our group,” Nygaard said. “There are an abundance of innovative products available in the automotive industry, and having the ability to navigate, implement and track the success of these products is essential in this role.”
Egginton’s previous experience in the automotive landscape includes a variety of positions with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, where she served as an area sales manager for the Fiat/Alfa Romeo West Business Center, the Jeep incentive and events marketing manager and digital marketing manager in Phoenix, as well as the manager of digital media optimization for FCA US in Auburn Hills, Mich.
She also spent several years as an account manager for Microsoft, focusing on the Ford Motor Company and General Motors accounts. Egginton also managed accounts with Lufthansa, Red Bull, and Citibank for the WPP Group in both Dearborn, Mich., and Frankfurt, Germany.
She attended the Ludwig Erhard Business School in Karlsruhe, Germany, and the German Academy of Direct Marketing in Frankfurt.
Nygaard also announced the promotion of Doug Peterson and Taylor Christensen, who will take on the positions of director of search engine marketing and director of search engine optimization, respectively.
“Doug and Taylor have each proven to be strong leaders and skilled marketers and I look forward to their continued growth and leadership in their new roles," Nygaard said.
Petersen previously held the position of digital marketing manager for LHM Dealerships. Before joining LHM, he held a variety of management positions with the Ken Garff Automotive Group. Petersen graduated from Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah with a bachelor’s degree in business administration and management.
Christensen, LHM’s new director of search engine optimization, previously served as the company’s digital marketing manager, providing SEO and SEM strategy and services for dealerships in Colorado and New Mexico. He also previously spent time with the Ken Garff Automotive Group, serving as the digital media manager as well as a marketing analyst for Eagle Gate College. Christensen graduated from the University of Utah with a bachelor’s degree in marketing.
For more information about LHM Dealerships, visit its site here.
Automotive logistics services provider MetroGistics announced Tuesday the appointment of its new vice president of finance.
Bringing decades of financial experience to the position is Bob Brinson, who has been a certified public accountant since 1981.
“We’re extremely pleased to welcome Bob to MetroGistics,” said William Billiter, the company’s co-founder and managing partner. “We’ve grown so much in just five short years, and will look to his guidance and expertise as we position ourselves for continued success in the future. His addition rounds out our impressive management team.”
Brinson has served in various accounting and financial positions since 1980 since beginning his career at Arthur Anderson, where he worked his way up to the position of audit manager.
According to MetroGistics, in more recent years, Brinson has held the position of chief financial officer for several privately held entrepreneurial businesses, growing enterprise value as well as providing senior-level financial services to various entities as an independent consultant.
Brinson is a member of several professional financial-related associations, including the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, Missouri Society of Certified Public Accountants, Executive Connections and the Financial Executives Networking Group. He earned his bachelor’s degree in accounting from the University of Missouri-Columbia.
To learn more about MetroGistics, visit its site here.
Remarketing company FLD Inc. announced Thursday an internal promotion to fill the role of chief financial officer.
Taking the reins of CFO is Rita Miller, who joined the company as a comptroller in 2008.
According to FLD, in her new role, Miller will now be more involved with projections in budgeting, assisting with the introductions of new products and services to the market, and contributing to FLD’s efforts to expand globally.
“Rita has made tremendous impacts thus far in her time with FLD and has proven vital to our company’s success,” said Ron Sanders, FLD’s chief executive officer. “We look forward to continuing to grow FLD’s technology and services under her day-to-day leadership.”
Having grown up in Orlando, Miller graduated from Florida Atlantic University prior to becoming a CPA in 2005.
After joining the company in 2008, she assisted FLD’s former chief operations officer, Laurie Conn, with administrative tasks, including non-auction-related human resources tasks as well as state and federal income tax issues.
“I have a great support team, and I am fortunate to have worked closely with the executive team for the last eight years as well as mentorship from Laurie Conn,” Miller said. “I am excited about the opportunity to help continue the growth and expansion of the company.”
Volkswagen Group of America elevated one of its executives at VW Credit on Monday to be president and chief executive officer of the captive finance company.
Taking on the role effective Jan. 1 is Horst Meima, who most recently served as executive vice president and chief financial officer of VCI. Meima brings with him more than 20 years of experience within the company, including the roles of president and CEO of former Volkswagen Bank USA, vice president of sales and marketing and president and ceo of VW Credit Canada.
In this new role, the company indicated Meima will oversee all functions of VW Credit, the captive finance company which services Volkswagen, Audi and Ducati customers, authorized dealers and their affiliated stores as Volkswagen Credit and Audi Financial Services. He will also serve as chairman of the board for VW Credit Canada.
Meima holds an MBA degree from the UCLA Anderson School of Management and a bachelor’s degree in economics from Colorado State University.
Meima succeeds Christian Dahlheim, who will take on the role of board member for Sales and Marketing of Volkswagen Financial Services AG, in Braunschweig, Germany, effective Jan. 1.
ADESA announced just before Thanksgiving that Heather Greenawald has been named its vice president of legal.
ADESA indicated Greenawald will report to KAR Auction Services executive vice president, general counsel and secretary Becca Polak and to ADESA president and chief executive officer Stéphane St-Hilaire.
In her new role, Greenawald will lead ADESA’s legal team and manage relationships with outside counsel. In addition, she will partner with members of ADESA’s senior management to lead and implement the company’s strategic vision and oversee its numerous legal functions.
“We are pleased to welcome Heather to our leadership team,” St-Hilaire said. “She has a diverse background with several large companies and extensive experience in areas such as financial services, technology and manufacturing. She will be a great asset to our organization.”
Greenawald brings more than 18 years of experience to ADESA. She served as vice president, general counsel and corporate secretary for hhgregg, a large publicly traded retail company based in Indianapolis. While at hhgregg, she managed litigation, developed and implemented policies and served as a key advisor to senior management.
Greenawald’s career also includes time with Ingersoll Rand as assistant general counsel and 10 years as vice president and associate general counsel for Sallie Mae.
Greenawald has a bachelor’s degree from Texas A&M University and a juris doctor degree from Harvard Law School.
Chip Perry is excited to be back in the auto business. And he sees a lot of potential for TrueCar in what he believes to be a continually evolving online auto environment.
He’s also aware of the much-talked-about challenges involving the company he will soon head.
But Perry is ready for them.
In a conversation with Auto Remarketing on Monday a few hours after it was announced he will become the new president and chief executive officer of TrueCar, Perry talked about his decision to join the Santa Monica, Calif.-based company, what he has planned and where TrueCar’s opportunities are, plus much more.
Initial steps as CEO
Perry, who founded AutoTrader.com and was its CEO until 2013, officially begins his tenure as TrueCar president and CEO on Dec. 15. That same day, TrueCar founder Scott Painter is stepping down as chief executive, chairman and board member.
(In September, it was announced that TrueCar president John Krafcik would be leaving to be CEO of Google's autonomous car division. Chief financial officer Mike Guthrie then took on additional duties and interm chief operating officer to run TrueCar's day-to-day.)
Perry, who has called Atlanta home for the past 18 years after starting AutoTrader.com in 1997, is moving back to Southern California to run TrueCar. He had lived in Pasadena for 15 years prior to his move to the Southeast.
In fact his role before launching what is now known as Autotrader was as a vice president of business development at the Los Angeles Times, his bio notes. Perry spearheaded the launch of what was one of the first online services from a major newspaper (TimesLink) in the early 1990s.
His most recent endeavor before joining TrueCar was as president and CEO of RentPath, the parent to ApartmentGuide.com and Rent.com.
And as president and CEO of TrueCar, Perry moves back to the front lines of the auto section of the online world.
“The automotive space has always had great appeal and allure to me, because there are so many unmet needs in car-buying and -selling process,” Perry said in Monday’s interview. “Consumers have a lot of pain points still, even after 20 years of innovation in the industry by all the different players and so much progress made by so many dealers.
“There’s still a lot of room for improvement,” he added. “And when I look at TrueCar, I see a company that has incredible untapped potential … to be a catalyst to making that car-buying and -selling process even better for both (parties).”
“I firmly believe that it’s the car dealer that sells the car to the consumer. And we at TrueCar, as a marketplace and an online buying and selling platform, we facilitate car sales. We help dealers get introduced to ready-to-buy consumers,” Perry added. “That’s a very important element of our positioning and going forward, I’m going to be putting a lot of emphasis on improving dealer relationships and improving the perceptions that dealers have of the services we provide.”
Something to which Perry holds firm is that leading third-party sites — like a TrueCar — must provide both a good experience to both the consumers and dealers it serves.
He emphasizes that TrueCar has contributed a great deal of innovation to the industry, “but at the same time, they’ve broken a lot of china — with car dealers, in particular.”
But that situation, he says, is one that can be mended and improved upon. In fact, priority No. 1 for Perry will be “to reach out and work personally with many dealers all across the country.”
Perry believes there are many ways TrueCar can “better serve” dealers, and he plans to learn that straight from the source. (More on that below)
His goal is to “earn their trust back by listening to them and building their feedback into our future plan,” Perry said.
“A company like this gets improved from the customer back,” Perry said. “There are a lot of great ideas in Santa Monica. But many of the best ideas for improvement sit in the minds and hearts of car dealers all across America.”
Once he officially starts in the role on Dec. 15, Perry plans to work with TrueCar’s leadership team and the dealer sales and support team to review all of the company’s dealer-facing “touchpoints.”
Until he officially begins, he’s not able to view what all of those touchpoints are, but noted that there’s a lot of “momentum” and internal work already in place with the interim leadership, he said.
Face time with dealers
Perry plans to get out and talk with dealers face-to-face, meeting them in person and giving them an “open forum.” To get a sense of how this might look, consider the example Perry shares about his AutoTrader.com days.
During that time, whenever Perry would make a presentation to dealers, he would put his cell phone number on the last slide of the deck, he said.
“I always made myself available to any car dealer in America who wanted to talk about any aspect of what we were doing for them, when I was with AutoTrader.com,” Perry said. “And I’m going to do the same thing at TrueCar. Anybody can have access to me anytime they want.
“Obviously, we have a lot of room for improvement,” he continued. “I don’t know, specifically, operationally, what the improvements are going to be yet, I just know they’re there. I just know it.”
One of the major ones, he said, will be to give dealers a sense of best practices for success within the TrueCar marketplace itself.
“Any time you have a big digital marketplace like TrueCar or Cars.com, there are always dealers who get more value than others from the marketplace — not because their cars are better, but because they’re employing marketing techniques and tools that enable them to get more results from the marketplace; they’re better marketers and salespeople,” he said.
“It’s possible through the information that the marketplace generates, to identify who are those top performers. And a lot of what we did in my past life was help the entire industry understand better what the true best practices were,” Perry continued. “And I think because the consumer’s journey in the car-buying process is evolving all the time and people are making more use of these new technology tools, it’s incumbent upon the marketplace to keep the dealers informed about what it takes to win.”
Not just when it comes to price, either, he emphasizes. The entire dealer-consumer interaction throughout the purchasing process has potential for “deeper research” to generate feedback for dealers.
“So, I think that there’s a big educational opportunity right in front of us. But it will require a different kind of research, a different kind of collaboration, a different kind of data-sharing (than what has) happened up until now,” he said.
And there are probably many more examples of opportunity that TrueCar may have, Perry said. What, exactly, those are won’t become fully clear until Perry officially comes aboard and huddles with the management team.
But we asked him this: From his perspective, to this point, as an outsider, where does he see potential in TrueCar?
Perry shared these stats:
- There are about 6 million people who visit TrueCar.com each month.
- There are roughly 3.5 million used vehicles bought in the U.S. each month and about 1.25 million new cars.
- New-car buyers make up the most of TrueCar’s audience.
So what does all that mean?
“With 6 million, it means there’s a large share of current new-car buyer audience is on TrueCar already. Yet, only about 1 percent of those people buy a car in a measurable way through TrueCar every month. It’s between 60,000 and 70,000 people; 1 percent, out of that 6 million,” Perry said. “So just that number alone points to the upside opportunity here to enable more dealers to benefit from the huge audience that’s already coming to TrueCar.”
Evolution in online shopping
The foundation for TrueCar — things like data collection, transaction values and the consumer experience — is there, Perry said. Now it’s time to “take it to a whole new level” in the evolution of e-commerce.
The car industry already has two decades worth of changes brought on by the Internet, but we’re still only “at the bottom of the third inning” in terms of what’s potentially on-deck, Perry said.
However, he emphasizes that will require partnership with dealers.
Granted, some of the larger dealers or dealer groups are likely to tackle e-commerce on their own.
However, there will be dealers who will need technology partners, “to help them sell cars in a modern way to modern consumers,” Perry said.
Again, working with dealers. His first priority.
And that, soon enough, will start with a conversation.
