This week, Byrider’s Warren Lenard was named a Chief Technology Officer of the Year honoree through a program orchestrated by the Indianapolis Business Journal and Techpoint.

The chief technology officer for the network of buy-here, pay-here dealerships was one of 37 honorees, recognizing the technological strides Byrider is making under Lenard’s leadership.

“We are thrilled to see Warren’s hard work recognized by the greater Indianapolis business community,” Byrider chief executive officer Craig Peters in a news release. “He’s taken the lead with our efforts in ensuring we are using the most advanced technology out there to equip our stores and franchises to better serve our customers.”

Byrider is in the process of rolling out advanced technology programs to its dealers across the country. The new programs include a custom-built, cloud-based customer relationship management tool, advanced dealer-facing dashboard reports and an online customer financing approval platform.

The company highlighted each of these developments will drastically impact the way Byrider’s dealership network uses technology and data to make well-informed business decisions and improve customer experiences.

Byrider added initial phases of each program are currently in use and further developments will continue to roll out throughout the year.

In addition to his leadership role at Byrider, Lenard is president of the Society of Information Management’s Indianapolis chapter and is actively involved with business programs at Butler University.

"I am humbled and honored by this recognition,” Lenard said. “I have been privileged to work alongside a top-notch senior management team and be a part of a highly motivated and talented IT organization. It has already been an incredible journey at Byrider so far and the best is yet to come."

Additionally, in the same awards program, KAR Global said via email that its executive vice president and chief digital officer Tom Fisher earned Top Honoree designation from IBJ's 2020 CTO of the Year award program for the public company division.

In a statement provided by the company, Fisher said: "On behalf of the entire KAR technology team, I am incredibly grateful for this recognition. Our global tech talent is extraordinary and has made remarkable strides to bring innovative digital solutions and capabilities to market for our customers. I’m especially proud of the team’s entrepreneurial spirit and agility, and how quickly and enthusiastically they pivoted this spring to take a product we had been strategically investing in for years from proof of concept to full-scale production practically overnight as we took our entire business digital around the world."