Students in the Auction Academy's fifth class are done with half of this year’s training and development agenda for the two-year program, having already attended multiple sessions in Dallas and Birmingham, Ala., this year.

In addition to beginning Certified Automotive Remarketer certification training last month, Auction Academy students got an opportunity to visit America’s Birmingham Auto Auction and ADESA Birmingham.

In Birmingham, Jason Murdock, a recent Auction Academy graduate, also directed the group during a hands-on workshop concentrated on vehicle frame damage and repair education.

Auction Academy’s second half of remaining 2018 sessions includes an upcoming trip to Chicago, followed by a last session of the year in Detroit.

While in Chicago, the class has plans to visit America’s Chicago Auto Auction, led by auction manager Larry Hero, as well as meet with representatives from Donlen, NCM Associates and World Omni Financial.

The class' visit to Dallas last month began at Santander Consumer USA with executive vice president of asset remarketing, loan and lease servicing Brent Huisman, along with a dinner hosted by America’s AA chief executive officer Ben Lange.

With Huisman, students learned about how his staff remarkets vehicles for both Santander and Chrysler Capital, while Lange shared how he grew America’s AA through methodical strategic acquisitions in conjunction with the development of greenfield auction sites, according to Auction Academy.

A day later, Dallas’ Metro Auto Auction general manager Scott Stalder and assistant GM Rob Gorman hosted the class for another session comprised of training from four industry leaders.

Auction Academy said United Auto Credit director of loss mitigation Scott Mousaw, who covered strategy for purging repossessed vehicles, joined CEO of Liquid Motors Michael Daseke and Chase Tidwell, who serves as National Independent Automobile Dealers Association VP of sales and marketing.

Meanwhile, in addition to Auction Academy’s two-year training and development events, its additional seminar series recently sustained the continuing education program ’s very first session on workplace culture involving a particular presentation titled “Respect in the Workplace, Beyond #MeToo,” from employment and labor law firm Littler Mendelson’s C. Eric Stevens.

“We chose as the first topic area for 2018 the various aspects of workplace culture, specifically to include harassment of any type: physical, sexual, verbal or visual.” Auction Academy presidenty Penny Wanna said. “Not only is this a timely subject, given what we see in the worlds of media, entertainment and government, but it is a critical subject with profound implications for the workplace in our industry.”

Moreover, in a news release, Wanna touts that Auction Academy’s seminar series brings additional one-day intensive sessions that are designed to deliver practical hands-on information concerning a specific auto auction business topic or functional area once per quarter.

In March, along with Stevens, seminar participants also heard from Daoud Abudiab, president of the Faith and Culture Center of Nashville, Tenn.,, Arthur J. Gallagher and Co.’s Mike Roy, who covered employment practices liability insurance, as well as Clint Bruce from domestic limited liability company Tacletics and CARS Recon chief operating officer Kay Hudson, who spoke about HR employee practices, according to Auction Academy.

Additionally, Wanna said that pre-registration for its next class in spring 2019 is now open.

The fifth class will graduate in March during the 2019 CAR Conference in Las Vegas, according to Auction Academy.