Remarketing of America announced that Kevin Parmenter has joined the company as its new remarketing manager, effective immediately.
In this role, the full-service recovery and remarketing provider indicated Parmenter will provide leadership within the organization and ensure that ROA achieves its core mission to enhance client experience through increased sales returns, efficient cycle times and unwavering service levels.
Parmenter’s responsibilities will include oversight for all aspects of ROA’s domestic client remarketing services, sales and business processes as well as providing guidance for ROA’s new international remarketing services expanding throughout Europe.
“Kevin Parmenter is a welcome addition to ROA’s management team,” Remarketing of America president and chief executive officer Emory White said.
Kevin comes to us with extraordinary auction knowledge and expertise, which will aid our continued growth with new market opportunities. He will have a big impact on our industry IQ and taking our remarketing department performance to the next level, and we feel fortunate to have him,” White went on to say.
Prior to joining ROA, the company highlighted that Parmenter built an impeccable reputation in the industry as both a fleet lease and transportation manager and as an automotive auction manager for leading companies for whom he led his teams to earn several auction of the quarter and year awards because of superior customer service and innovative thinking.
In his new role, Parmenter will be based in ROA’s corporate offices in Pasadena, Calif.
Vehicle transportation company MetroGistics has named its director of strategic accounts. Now responsible for maintaining relationships with key customer accounts, as well as growing MetroGistics’ customer portfolio, is Adam Laura.
“Having Adam onboard to help develop and grow our strategic account portfolio will be a great addition to our sales team,” said Scott Naz, managing partner, business development for MetroGistics.
“His expertise and experience within the marketplace, combined with our industry-leading logistics and technology platforms, will be a perfect fit in helping MetroGistics reach new heights,” Naz said.
Most recently, Laura worked as manager, business development for ShipCarsNow, a subsidiary of Union Pacific. His professional experience also includes positions with Insight Network Logistics, another subsidiary of Union Pacific, and TNT Logistics.
Laura’s resume includes leadership positions in network analysis, operations, procurement, account management and business development.
Originally from Detroit, he majored in both logistics management and marketing at Central Michigan University.
As part of its ongoing commitment to deliver the type of auction experience customers expect, Manheim bolstered its support team on Monday with a pair of executives.
Manheim named Tony Drummond as vice president of customer experience and Jim Williams as vice president of operations support. Both executives will report to Ashish Bisaria, senior vice president of customer experience.
“Tony and Jim are both true testaments to Manheim’s goal to put the right leaders in place to drive business growth and expand our customer base,” Bisaria said. “These dynamic leaders will use their expertise and experiences to deliver solutions to help our customers succeed. Our customers will benefit from the leadership and insights of Tony and Jim.”
Drummond joined Manheim on Feb. 17 after serving as an associate partner with IBM’s global business services group since 2011. Drummond’s background includes the many aspects and complexities of customer experience and integrated marketing, including CRM strategy definition, business process reengineering, technology integration and the end-to-end customer engagement lifecycle.
Drummond joined IBM in 2001 and held a variety of roles.
During his career, Drummond created solutions that incorporate all customer information from analytics and data to social, mobile and digital interface with customers. He worked with many organizations to define the “voice of the customer” and translate this into business and organizational strategy to drive new and incremental revenue.
“Tony has a core capability and process strategy for establishing insights through customer data and analytics, and then translating that into business process change,” Bisaria said. “Tony believes that the foundational building blocks of customer value are data, process and CRM tools that bring the insights to life.”
Williams, who joined Manheim on Feb. 24, was responsible for strategic development with premium retail services in his previous role.
Prior to joining premium retail services, Williams served in a variety of roles at Best Buy, including senior director of sales and operations and vice president of sales development.
At Best Buy, Williams’ operational and sales responsibility included four key businesses: computing, digital imaging, MP3 and services which accounted for $20 billion in revenue during the time he managed it. The primary goal of this function was to develop operational strategies to improve customer experience while driving out cost and optimizing operations.
Before joining the sales development team at Best Buy, Williams was responsible for the Eastern half of Best Buy’s Geek Squad services business where he led an organization of more than 10,000 people.
“Jim is an innovator with the courage and conviction to constantly improve, and he does this in a way that adds value to the business, “Bisaria said. “He has deep experience with building customer relationships and implementing strategies.”
Manheim Detroit to Host Arbor Day Clean Up
In an effort to clean up and preserve the environment around Manheim Detroit, a group of more than 100 employees from the Carlton, Mich., operating location will take part in an Arbor Day cleanup event on Friday from 2 to 5 p.m.
The company highlighted The group will volunteer to collect trash and debris on the grounds of 200-acre Manheim Detroit property, as well as along the property’s fence lines and in the adjacent wetland and farm field areas near the auction, which is located at 600 Will Carlton Road.
“It is always exciting when employees want to do their part to make a difference in the community,” Manheim Detroit general manager JD Daniels said.
An eight-member conservation committee, which includes members from several auction departments, is planning more events for later this year, including a second cleanup of the Civil War cemetery on the grounds of Manheim Detroit and a flower-planting event in May. Employees held a clean-up day at the cemetery last summer.
While Daniels hopes this volunteer event will help his employees build their community spirit, he hopes they have fun as well.
“We have a lot of fence line area to cover here, so we can really have an effect on keeping our community clean,” Daniels said. “Our employees will not only help preserve our environment, but they will have some fun in the process. We will have a friendly competition to see which department can collect the most trash, with the winning team collecting prizes.”
In addition to this conservation effort, Manheim Detroit added energy-efficient lightning throughout its facility last year and plans to add more energy-efficient solutions later this year.
U.S. House Member Coming to Manheim Riverside
U.S. Rep. Mark Takano announced that Manheim Riverside will be the 100th business for his “100 Business” tour, which began last year.
Takano, a California Democrat whose district includes Riverside, Calif., will tour the facility on Tuesday and meet with Scott Hurst, market vice president for Manheim’s southern California market, Christopher Brown, general manager for Manheim Riverside and Karyn Wrye, senior director of Manheim’s government affairs.
“I am proud to announce that Manheim Riverside will be the 100th business that I will visit for my ‘100 Businesses’ tour,” Takano said. “The Inland Empire has been hit particularly hard during The Great Recession, with the unemployment rate peaking at 15% and one in every fourteen homes in the region being foreclosed on. With that said, fixing our local economy is a top priority of mine. This tour allowed me to talk directly with the business owners and their employees and learn what Congress can do to accelerate the recovery.”
“Manheim Riverside is honored and excited to be the 100th Business that Congressman Mark Takano visits, as he completes his ‘100 Business’ tour,” Hurst said. “With our auction operation and our newly-opened service center, we are extremely proud to contribute to the growth of our industry, our local economy and our community.”
Dent Wizard International recently named a former rental car company executive with more than two decades of experience to be its new director of business development for its rental business.
Joining the company is Pete Stuckert, who will focus on strengthening and expanding Dent Wizard’s relationships with major rental companies throughout North America, leading Dent Wizard’s Ready Line Express program designed specifically for the daily rental and remarketing sides of the business.
The company also mentioned Stuckert will also work closely with Dent Wizard’s regional vice presidents and their staffs to further immerse them in latest trends and opportunities in the category.
Stuckert will report to Mike Black, Dent Wizard’s chief operating officer.
Stuckert has more than 20 years of experience in the auto rental business, most recently serving in a number of leadership and strategic roles with Enterprise.
“The auto rental business set records in 2013 for revenue and vehicles in fleet, while at the same time Dent Wizard continued to broaden our SMART Repair services and geographic reach,” Black said. “We believe this is a great time to further invest in our rental business team and our customer relationships.
“Pete’s category expertise, tenacity, and understanding of our business and our customers’ rental operations should drive significant value for our rental partners,” Black went on to say.
DealerRater appointed a 30-year automotive industry executive and former senior vice president at J.D. Power to the newly created position of chief executive officer.
Accepting the role today is Gary Tucker, who will be responsible for leading the company through its next phase of growth, building on DealerRater’s consumer review and content marketing disciplines.
DealerRater indicated Tucker will direct the company’s long-term growth strategy and lead the evaluation of any potential acquisitions.
“Given his global marketing and retail experience within the automotive industry, Gary was an ideal choice to lead DealerRater through the next critical phase in our growth story,” DealerRater founder Chip Grueter said. “The entire DealerRater team is thrilled to welcome Gary as our CEO as we continue our evolution into the epicenter of consumer sentiment for the automotive industry.”
Since its launch in 2002, DealerRater has grown to feature reviews of nearly 41,000 U.S. and Canadian dealers as well as nearly 1.4 million consumer reviews. DealerRater believes it maintains more dealership reviews than the next five consumer review sites combined.
Most recently, Tucker was senior vice president of global product management and marketing at J.D. Power, reporting directly to the company’s president. In that capacity, Tucker was responsible for developing products and services to meet the needs of J.D. Power’s customers around the world, as well as brand marketing.
During his 12-year tenure at J.D. Power, Tucker also held various senior management positions, including executive director of client services for the automotive industry.
Earlier in his career, Tucker was vice president of marketing and product planning for American Isuzu Motors. During his three years with Isuzu, he also served as vice president of sales and as vice president of asset management.
Previously, Tucker held various sales and marketing positions at GE Capital Auto Financial Services, including business leader of the Canadian unit, GE Capital Autolease Canada, located in Mississauga, Ontario. He also spent 10 years in the retail automotive industry in the Northeast.
As part of what the auction company called its continuing focus on developing talent and improving its customer experience, Manheim named three veterans to manager positions at Manheim Fredericksburg, Manheim San Antonio and Manheim El Paso.
The company announced on Tuesday that Craig Amelung now is general manager at Manheim Fredericksburg while Mike Browning now is general manager for Manheim San Antonio. The company also promoted Brian Walker to be auction manager at Manheim El Paso.
“It is always exciting to promote great talent, which is a key part of motivating employee teams and delivering a great experience for customers,” said Mike McKinney, Manheim’s regional vice president for East region operations.
“These three dynamic leaders, all with a long history with Manheim, will use their expertise and experiences to deliver solutions that help our customers succeed,” McKinney continued.
Rock Anderson, Manheim’s regional vice president for West region operations, also shared praise for the new appointments.
“These gentlemen are a true testament to Manheim’s goal to put the right leaders in place to drive business growth and expand our customer base,” Anderson said. “Our customers will benefit from the leadership and industry knowledge and insights these individuals provide.”
A veteran of more than 25 years in the remarketing industry, Amelung assumed his new role in March. He returned to the field after four years at Manheim’s corporate office in Atlanta as Manheim Fredericksburg’s assistant general manager in June of last year.
In 2011, Amelung was promoted to senior director of operations support, and was responsible for managing the company’s support and training efforts for all field operations departments at all Manheim’s North American operating locations. Amelung became Manheim’s director of best practices in 2009, and led the company’s efforts toward standardizing processes and procedures throughout the country.
Amelung joined Manheim Virginia in Greenfield, Va., as general manager in 2004. He was named assistant general manager at Manheim Fredericksburg in 2002 after serving in various roles at Manheim Baltimore/Washington from 1993 through 2002.
A 24-year veteran of the automotive industry, Browning has served as general manager at Manheim Mississippi since 2007. The company indicated he will transition to his new role over the next few weeks.
Browning currently serves as vice president of the National Auto Auction Association.
Browning joined the company in 2003 as general manager at Manheim New Orleans. At Manheim New Orleans, Browning spearheaded the charge to rebuild a strong customer base, resulting in a 200-percent increase in revenue.
Since joining Manheim 11 years ago, Browning has focused on reaching financial goals and building engaging relationships with both employees and customers. He has identified partnerships that are impactful locally and nationally.
Browning spent 13 years in the retail side of the business, and has been a member of the National Independent Auction Dealers Association and other regional independent auction associations before joining Manheim.
Walker, who joined Manheim in 2008 in the commercial department, has been promoted to auction manager for Manheim El Paso. Walker began his new role on March 17.
In January, Walker and his team received the honor as overall highest performance for 2013 at the company’s national sales meeting. Manheim El Paso was also named 2013 Capital One Auction of the Year for the Southwest Region.
Walker was promoted to commercial/dealer services manager at Manheim El Paso in 2010.
Prior to joining Manheim, Walker held several sales management roles in different industries, including pharmaceutical sales, medical staffing and healthcare. He is an IARA Certified Remarketer.
IHS Automotive has announced a newly created vice president of automotive marketing and customer management solutions position at the company, and appointed to the role is Steve Had, who comes over from Nielsen Global Automotive.
He will lead the team responsible for developing and delivering marketing and communications tools and services for IHS Automotive OEM sales and marketing teams, agencies, dealers and parts and services teams.
“We are pleased to welcome Steve to this important new role in our organization,” said Edouard Tavernier, senior vice president at IHS Automotive.
“His experience in the industry, together with knowledge and insight into our customer base, will have immediate impact on our business and provide opportunities for us to better serve our customers,” he said.
Specific product responsibilities for Had include multi-channel marketing solutions, PolkConnect and recall solutions. He is based in IHS Automotive’s Southfield, Mich. office.
Had is joining IHS Automotive from a role as senior vice president at Nielsen Global Automotive. There, he provided advertising, product placement and cross-platform media consulting expertise, following Nielsen’s acquisition of IAG Research.
Additionally, he advised executives and managers on new campaigns, competitive initiatives and strategic response for optimization and market leadership.
Prior to his work at Nielsen, Had spent 12 years at Ford, with roles in product planning, operations, marketing and finance.
ADESA Golden Gate has picked a new general manager.
Revealed late last week, Jeff Hoyt has taken on the role of GM.
Commenting on the news, ADESA president and chief executive officer Stéphane St-Hilaire said, “Jeff has dedicated himself to making ADESA Golden Gate one of our top auctions for more than 20 years.
“I am excited to have him now lead the team,” he added.
Hoyt has been with the company for over 20 years, first joining ADESA in 1992 as fleet lease manager.
Prior to that he was employed by Bay Cities Auto Auction where he served as Ford Factory Turn Back Manager and oversaw the fleet lease sales department.
Jeff is a graduate of the Western College of Auctioneering in Billings, Mont.
LeasePlan USA has announced that it has expanded its sales force, adding Mike Zalas to its client acquisition team.
Zalas will serve as the vice president of sales, national accounts, where he will be responsible for "delivering high-touch service" throughout the North Central region, the company shared.
Zalas brings with him more than 12 years of professional sales experience, including a decade in the fleet management industry.
Previously, Zalas worked as director of business development at the company, “where he created customized fleet management solutions tailored to his clients' specific fleet needs,” company officials said.
The company pointed out Zalada also “excelled” in the cultivation of new relationships while providing account management.
Mike currently serves on the Board of Directors as the program committee chair for the Chicago NAFA (National Fleet Management Association) chapter.
“Mike’s sales and industry experience is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to his many attributes. He is innovative and creative, which is instrumental in creating customized fleet solutions for his clients. I look forward to the fresh perspective Mike will provide new clients to help them reach their goals and I know he will deliver on our promise to make it easier to leaseplan,” Jon Toups, chief sales and marketing officer.
MarkOne Holdings has chosen an over-20 year veteran of the automotive industry for its leadership team.
The automotive finance holding company’s new corporate chief financial officer is Robert Bennett.
Bennett will be located in the company’s corporate offices in Jacksonville, Fla., and will work with leadership for MarkOne’s three regional locations in California, Texas and Florida.
“Bob’s experience in product trend analysis, unit costing, product pricing and detailed financial modeling will continue to push growth and strengthen our lending practices,” explains MarkOne Holdings president and chief executive officer Bruce Newmark. “MarkOne Holdings prides itself on our people and Bob certainly has the credibility and industry knowledge worthy of joining our family.”
In his new role, Bennett will be responsible for the preparation, interpretation and presentation of budgets, forecasts and financial statements for the company
Officials explained he brings launch experience entailing the establishment of accounting systems, controls, as well as policies and procedures and working with the capital markets.
Highlighting the new CFO’s background, most recently, Bennett served as Business Unit CFO for Bank of America’s Dealer Financial Services division in Jacksonville, Fla., where he was responsible for bulk acquisitions, divestitures and securitizations regarding automobile loans and leases, as well as being accountable for developing and maintaining forecasts for both consumer and commercial auto portfolios.
Prior to his work with Bank of America he was the Business Unit CFO for LendingTree and played a role in the launch of the settlement services division, as well as the Business Unit CFO for Wachovia’s settlement services division.
He’s also served as manager of finance for Bombardier Capital’s Consumer Finance Division, which purchased consumer paper for their Sea-Doo and Ski-Doo products.
