WANADAês John OêDonnell elected to ATAE Board
At its Annual Meeting at the recent NADA Convention in Las Vegas, the Automotive Trade Association Executives confirmed that WANADA CEO John OêDonnell was elected to its Board of Directors where he has begun a two- year term in the leadership of the North American auto dealer association group. Headquartered in the NADA offices in McLean, VA, ATAE interacts with NADA on its national dealer organization programming and matters of federal level dealer group advocacy.
The ATAE dealer network is comprised of about 100 state and major metro level new car dealer organizations in the U.S. and Canada. It is a CEO organization with other dealer association senior executives involved as determined by each association CEO. There are four organization-wide member meetings throughout the year: the Annual Meeting occurring in conjunction with the NADA Convention; the ATAE Summer Conference; the Washington, DC Conference in September; and the Law and Legislation Conference in October. The Washington Conference brings together ATAEs from around the U.S., with their dealer leaders, along with NADA, AIADA and NAMAD leadership for the purpose of contacting members of Congress about the national dealer government relations agenda.
This yearês ATAE Annual Meeting focused on various assaults on the dealer franchise system, principally from federal regulators and plaintiffsê lawyer groups, all under the touted auspices of consumer protection. NADA to its credit has assembled a number of helpful studies to refute such specious regulatory positions as the Consumer Finance Protection Bureauês attack on dealer credit arranging for alleged discrimination against minority car buyers.
ATAEês Board is comprised of 12 members, two from each of four regions in the U.S and Canada, with the remaining four being the officers who are elected each year on an at large basis. This yearês ATAE chairman is Craig Bickmore, president of the Utah Auto Dealers Association. WANADA has a longstanding connection with ATAE going back to its founding before the 1920s. Preceding John OêDonnell were three generations of Murphy CEOs at WANADA who served in the leadership of ATAE, with Gerry Murphy being elected to honorary membership last year.
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