Firstly, I want to wish happiness and health to Kim in his retirement. Kim served dealers and the industry for over 40 years, and he did it with grace and professionalism. Kim, you will be missed, and we can only aspire to build on what you helped create at NAEDA. Kim will be honored at our annual conference, so please make it a point to catch up with Kim and wish him well. I am honored and thankful that Kim and the NAEDA Board of Directors have chosen me to continue the mission of serving the dealer community.
Let me start by reintroducing myself. I am from Pennsylvania, and I have undergraduate and graduate degrees from The Pennsylvania State University.
I have been married to Lisa for 26 years, and we have a daughter Gabriela. Interesting fact, Gabriela was born in Brazil while I was an expat, so she has dual citizenship. Gabriela is a recent graduate of The Pennsylvania State University as well. We also have a canine son, Ziggy the goldendoodle, and he commands the house. I have been in the equipment industry for over 30 years, working in multiple facets. I have run an OEM Brand, managed a large equipment leasing finance business for an OEM, ran an 8-store OPE dealership on the West Coast, and served as an industry consultant as well. The one constant in my career is that I got to serve and support dealers. Quite frankly, that is why I was so excited to have the opportunity to lead the NAEDA team.
I have learned so much in the first few months of my tenure at NAEDA. Here are some examples:
- NAEDA has a unique blend of industry and association experts. Our industry knowledge is unparalleled. No other association comes close to that. Obviously, my experience comes from industry, and that will only strengthen the support we give to dealers daily. I am receiving phone calls from dealers seeking guidance and support, and it has been extremely rewarding to help them.
- Our Manufacturer Relations team is incredibly meaningful to the industry. I have already met with several OEMS, and meetings have been productive. We will continue to work together with the OEMS to make sure the dealers’ voices are heard and bridge any gaps in communications.
- Honestly, I had no idea about the volume of dealer calls we get daily. I (and my team of experts) speak with dealers daily. In just the short time I have been here, I have observed one success after another. Some examples include reversing inappropriate charges from a state sales tax audit, dealing with cybersecurity threats, M&A challenges, parts stocking issues, and so much more. Dealers continue to use our hotline and direct communication for support. We are here to serve you.
- The breadth of the Dealer Institute is quite impressive. We have over 1,000 students come through the Dealer Institute annually. We are continuously growing our offerings to ensure our content remains current and relevant. Again, this is where our industry expertise provides a unique offering and advantage.
- Coming into this role, I had little understanding of the role of Equipment Dealer Consulting (EDC) at NAEDA. Then I started talking to dealers, and I found out that so many dealers use or have used EDC. They sing the praises of EDC, and I see why. What accounting firms are built with the singular purpose of supporting dealers? None to my knowledge. Curt, our EDC leader, has over 40 years experience working with dealers. His valuation models are the best I have seen. His certified and reviewed audits are thorough. And that is just scratching the surface of what EDC does for dealers. The EDC model at its core provides accurate, complete, and honest services for a fair price.
- Our advocacy team has done a fine job at the state, provincial, and federal levels. It is a challenging time for dealers with the continuous push for the right to repair state by state, and now the addition of tariffs. It has been a rocky road for dealers and their customers. At our next Board meeting we will be putting forth a comprehensive legislative agenda for the USA and Canada. Our Board will vote on the agenda, and then we will share the results with all our members. We are cautiously trying to balance priorities to ensure we use your and our political capital as prudently as possible.
NAEDA has an incredible foundation, and I can hope to continue to make it even stronger. My early priorities have been to add quality associate members who bring value to the membership. I am soliciting dealer needs, then going out and finding the best fits for NAEDA to provide the support our dealers need. We have already brought in a dealer real estate firm, specialty advisory firm (with an OPE focus), dealer business system providers, AI tech companies, lending/funding companies to complement our current as-sociate members, IT security companies, recruiting firms that place parts and service people sourced from the military, and more will come. We will continue to source associate members of value to the membership. We will continue to be selective in who we choose to be a part of NAEDA.
We are in the process of expanding the Industry Relations Task Force (IRTF). Historically, we have focused on a few OEMs, but dealers have requested that we expand this to include other OEMs. At least three new IRTF meetings will be held this year alone, more than doubling the total from prior years. And we will continue to add more. As you will see, the report outputs are comprehensive and de-tailed.
My vision for legislative/advocacy is to form broad coalitions where possible. One message and one voice to help the industry. We are having discussions with other as-sociations and even OEMs to align on many of the issues dealers are confronted with. We may not always be on the same page on certain matters, and that is fine, we just agree to disagree. Quite frankly, most of the issues we face today have impacts on dealers, dealer customers, and suppliers. I firmly believe this will strengthen messaging.
We have recently reorganized and stream-lined the organization. We did this to create clear functional roles within NAEDA. We now have a dedicated Marketing and Communications leader and a team in charge of membership. We have added regional field staff to support relations and promote NAEDA membership services. I am pleased to say that we are one of the few organizations with a dedicated Canadian office, which will also be growing this year. These key changes will make us stronger and more effective. Additionally, we are modernizing our processes so that we have more time dedicated to serving dealers and less time fueling bureaucracy. That is one of the key pillars to my leadership style. More on that in another article.
In addition to our annual conference, which I hope to see all of you there, we will be holding regional roundtables. We had our first one in Winnipeg in August. I will schedule those in the fall and winter, sometimes in conjunction with another event, to minimize time away from your dealerships. I find that the smaller, more intimate and informal sessions allow for free and open dialogue/feed-back. I am here to listen, learn, and then put things into action.
Again, I want to thank the membership for entrusting me with this great organization. The mission is clear to me: SERVE DEALERS
Article Written By: Brett Davis
