In recognition of his service and as a token of gratitude, the North American Equipment Dealer Association (NAEDA) Board presented the NAEDA CEO, Kim Rominger, with a Distinguished Service Award at the association board meeting Monday, November 6.
Kim celebrated 40 years as an equipment dealers association executive on November 1.
Kim is the son of a rural mail carrier and part-time farmer. He grew up on a 300-acre farm that grew corn, beans and had the occasional hayfield in French Lick, Indiana.
Coming out of college, he started his career working for Federated Insurance. He was with Federated for three short years, and it was through that relationship that he began working with dealer associations. Eventually, in 1983, he met David Lucy, who was the then Executive Director of the Indiana Implement Retailers Association.
Dave was looking for a field short-term rep, but also a long-term “number two” – as he was planning to retire soon and was looking for his successor. However, he decided to hang around for another 17 years before Kim took the reins.
During his career, Kim has had the unique ability to wear two hats at the same time, and to wear them well. He found himself managing two separate associations at the same time more than once.
Kim managed a number of association mergers including Indiana joining Kentucky to create Mid America. He then ran both Mid America and the Ohio-Michigan Equipment Dealers Association for 15 years before their merger which formed United. In June of 2017, he took leadership of United and EDA before they merged to form NAEDA in 2022.
Since Kim started his journey as an equipment association executive 40 years ago, the industry has seen many large changes.
When Kim started, there were 34 regional equipment dealer associations, which, as stated, he has been instrumental in several of those mergers. He also has seen first-hand the changing demographics of our dealerships, ownership groups and customer base. Most importantly, Kim has always had the dealers’ best interests at heart.
Article Written by NAEDA Staff
