TORONTO -

Auto data platform company Dealer-FX chief executive officer and founder Gary Kalk will become executive chairman of the board of directors for the company.

The company also announced on Tuesday that it named chief operating officer Bill Lucchini chief executive officer.

Dealer-FX, which performs digital transformation and customer experience management for automotive retailers and OEMs, said the announcements come after a strong 2019 in which the business secured new OEM partnerships with companies such as Kia Motors America, Hyundai Auto Canada Corp, Mitsubishi Motors of North America, Mitsubishi Motor Sales of Caribbean, Nissan Canada and Volkswagen Group Canada.

“As a business founder and entrepreneur, your role is always evolving, and becoming chairman is just the latest step on this journey,” Kalk said in a news release.

He continued, “Dealer-FX is at a natural inflection point in its growth, where it makes sense to bring in new leadership. When Bill joined as COO, the intent was that he would take over as CEO, and I’m happy to see this transition come at a time when Dealer-FX is really poised to accelerate growth in its next chapter.”

Lucchini said that since joining the company in July, he has seen the benefit that the platform brings to OEMs and dealers.

“With the continued support of Gary and HGGC, we are poised to broaden that impact, accelerate growth and increase profitability.” Lucchini said.

Lucchini brings more than 10 years of senior executive experience. He previously served as senior vice president and general manager at global cybersecurity firm Sophos.

At that company, he led the transformation to a cloud-centric security company with the creation of Sophos Central, which Dealer-FX said was “the fastest growing business in the company’s history.”

Lucchini was also chief operating officer at OnForce, a marketplace for IT talent. In addition, he was vice president at Intuit, leading various businesses such as the QuickBooks Mid-Market Division, QuickBase, and the Intuit Partner Platform.

Dealer-FX listed additional highlights of 2019, including service appointments increasing by 64% and completed inspections up 153% over the previous year. The company says it achieved “numerous new product innovations” and produced Dealer Messenger, which is a new collaboration system for dealers and their customers.

Also in 2019, the company says it enhanced integrations with DMS vendors for parts information. The company said it also launched a new regional service model to provide local experts who support dealers “with the advice and help to drive increased retention and profits.”

“The board and I want to thank Gary for the tremendous job he has done in creating Dealer-FX, building it into a leader, and quadrupling revenues over the past 3.5 years,” said HGGC president and co-founder Steve Young, who is a member of the board of directors at Dealer-FX.

He continued, “Bill brings a wealth of experience and an extraordinary talent for leading high-growth technology businesses, and we could not be more excited to have him step into the CEO role.  We’re confident that Bill is the right person to build on the company’s success and bring new energy and ideas as Dealer-FX continues its progress, and we’re very happy to have both Gary and Bill on the team as we enter into 2020.”