IARA’s New Leader Preps for Roundtable

By Jeffrey Bellant

As the International Automotive Remarketers Alliance looks toward its Summer Roundtable event in Chicago in August, it also prepares to begin a new era.

Industry veteran Mark Coleman took over the post of executive director last month, following the retirement of Tony Long.

President Jeff Bescher explained what the board saw in Coleman.

“Mark has extensive experience within our industry and all the intangibles that have made him a success in his career will be a great fit for the leadership position within the IARA,” Bescher said. “Mark is a 25-year veteran of the wholesale automotive industry. He was cofounder and President of Title Auctions, which developed a bespoke online auction primarily for credit unions and, most recently, with GE Fleet / Element Fleet.”

In 2008, Coleman joined Paul Seger’s team at GE Fleet as co-leader of national sales for the company’s then newly formed third-party remarketing services. GE Fleet is now Element Fleet, and the thirdparty remarketing service is among the largest in North America. Coleman lives in Portland, Ore. with his wife of 33 years. They have one daughter who recently graduated from college.

“This industry has been so good to me,” he said with a laugh. “Just opportunity after opportunity to pursue in this industry.”

As an employee at Element, Coleman wasn’t a stranger to IARA before he took his new post.

“Paul Seger, who was a former IARA president and now board chair, was very committed to ensur- ing his remarketing team was involved in IARA,” Coleman sad. “He also was a real advocate of all of us getting CAR (Certified Automotive Remarketer) certified.”

So, Coleman has been an IARA member, served on a committee and taken CAR certification courses.

Coleman has a clear direction for the future, three top priorities developed by IARA leadership.

“The first priority is getting even better at communication with our members and the industry,” he said.

That means engagement through social media with enhancements through the website and IARA’s smart phone app to help deliver messages to members and others in the industry.

“The second priority we talked about was delivering even more value to our members and we’ve got some plans underway to do that,” Coleman said. “The idea is to create content hubs that IARA members can access to get the latest information on issues and insight on best practices.”

This will be a work in progress over the next several months.

“A third priority we talked about was laying a foundation for an even bigger membership tent,” Coleman said. “That means reaching out to some folks in the remarketing industry who might not be well represented, such as women.”

IARA recently formed a relationship with a brand-new organization called GROW (Global Remarketing Opportunities for Women), which promotes the careers of women, Coleman said.

The group will be hosting a reception at IARA’s Summer Roundtable in Chicago on Aug. 22-24 at the Westin on Michigan Avenue.

The other part of that is reaching out to younger people new to the industry, such as Gen Z and Millennials. Offering training or mentoring would help expand that IARA membership tent.

Those interested in hearing more about IARA’s future can do so at the Summer Roundtable.

Ann Fandozzi, chief executive officer of RB Global, will be one of the keynote speakers, along with Steve Greenfield, CEO of Automotive Ventures, Melinda Zabritski of Experian Automotive, Alex Yurchenko of Black Book, speakers from Autotech Ventures and several others.

7/31/2023