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LAS VEGAS - A pioneer of remarketing, a past National Auto Auction Association president and a consignor from a rejuvenated Ford Motor Co. took home top honors during a recent remarketing event.
The International Automotive Remarketers Alliance honored Stuart Angert with its Circle of Excellence Award, while DAA Northwest owner Bob McConkey and Ford’s Linda Silverstein received top awards from colleagues at the Conference of Automotive Remarketing.
The IARA closed its spring conference by honoring Angert, who founded Remarketing
Services of America.
David Alfonso, auction sales manager for Kia Motors America, presented the award.
He told the story of meeting with Angert 20 years ago when Alfonso was with Mazda and Angert was with Marine Midland Automotive Financial Services.
“Marine Midland was the power player of their time in this end of the business,” Alfonso said.
“(It had) $7 billion of auto leases and loans on the books and was the fourth largest captive finance company.”
After Marine Midland closed its remarketing department, Angert founded RSA.
“As history tells us, it opened a new chapter in our industry,” Alfonso said. “RSA was the first remarketing company of its kind and a whole new concept on the remarketing stage (in 1991).”
Alfonso said Angert’s endeavor had a “major impact on the remarketing industry, in terms of vehicle sales, quantity sold,
operational quality, number of sellers and the competitive
energy within the industry.”
RSA has remarketed more than 2 million vehicles for major banks, several manufacturers and more than a dozen credit unions, Alfonso said.
Angert eventually sold the company, but has still kept busy. He serves on the board of
directors for numerous organizations, from non-profits to corporate advisory boards and colleges, Alfonso said.
He also teaches, mentors and has been involved in numerous causes and charities.
Angert has received several awards and was named a finalist for Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst & Young and a finalist for an International Excellence Award given by Microsoft Corp., among other honors.
Angert said he saw that the
industry was “really screaming for some process improvement” when he began RSA.
Enhancing cars and getting them sold in a timely basis were critical to the industry,
he said.
Angert joked about the company’s humble beginnings,
taping a paper sign with the company name to a door.
The company’s suite address was actually a post office box.
“Our first car (remarketed) was actually a pizza truck,” Angert said.
He recounted several stories from his career and thanked the group for the honor.
“It was a great ride, a great industry and we’ve got some great times ahead of us,” he said.
Alfonso said that one factor separates Angert from all of the other deserving winners of the Circle of Excellence Award.
“Stuart is one of us,” he said. “We’re a remarketing organization and Stuart is a remarketer, 100 percent.”
Later during the CAR portion of the conference, remarketers honored McConkey with the Remarketer of the Year award and Silverstein with the
Consignor of the Year award.
McConkey simply thanked the group for the award. Silverstein, who attended the conference, was not present at the award ceremony, though she
received it later. |
