For 42 years Tony has trained dealerships across the country on how to increase sales and profitability.
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He started in 1978 as a Car Salesman at Arlington Toyota in Jacksonville, FL., becoming Salesman of the Year in his second year sparked by his desire to become the best in the business.
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Tony worked his way from Salesperson to Finance Manager to General Manager and ultimately COO of the DAK Automotive Group.

During his 42 years, Tony Pate has hired and helped train over 10,000 automotive sales professionals. Tony has recruited and trained sales professionals in over 40 states at dealerships including Hendrick Automotive Group, and Staluppi Automotive Group. In the last four years, Tony has recruited and trained at over 100 dealerships and adapted to the new Covid and Post- Covid hiring techniques.
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Tony’s other accomplishments include being hired in 2011 and 2012 to train and educate the auto sales professionals and managers for Nissan of North America on the launch of the Nissan Leaf.
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Tony was also hired as the Vice President for Paul Cummings Enterprises teaching sales and leadership to salespeople from dealerships across the country

In addition to his experience in dealerships and training, Tony spent 7 years at Zimmerman Advertising as Director of Accounts Services for the Automotive Division for Jordan Zimmerman.

David Walsh is one of the top Leadership and Auto Dealer Training people in the Automotive Industry with 37 years of experience and has provided training and developed a curriculum for the largest and most successful dealerships across the country.

Clients of his sales, collections, customer service, and leadership training include: Enterprise, JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, US Bank, BMW, VW, and Audi.

David began his career with Ford Motor Company, leaving Ford to become the President of Operations for the Walden Automotive Group, where he managed the daily operations for 10 dealerships in Minnesota.

David later joined MarketWise as a VP of Sales Operations, managing lease portfolios for captive and non-captive finance companies. With this vast experience.

David then joined JM Family Enterprises Southeast Toyota Finance as AVP of Training and Curriculum Development. David provided customer service, sales, leasing, and leadership training for the 177 Southeast Toyota dealers and Southeast Toyota Finance.

Howard Lesser has a long and distinguished career in Auto Dealership Service Operations most recently as the Director of Service Business Operations for VW of America.

Prior to that Howard was at Nissan of North America for 30 years as Senior Manager Customer Satisfaction, Senior Manager Quality Management, Senior Manager Electric Vehicle Sales and Service, and Senior Manager Dealer and Fleet Support.

Howard began his career working at his family’s filling station and repair shop where he worked from the time he was 13 until graduating from Montclair University. Leveraging his service experience, Howard became Service Advisor at Medford Ford in New Jersey and later at Moore Motors in Philadelphia.

Since leaving corporate America, Howard continues to improve Fixed and Service operations by providing consulting services for dealerships across the country.

Ken has been working in the Automotive business for over 28 years. He has recruited and trained hundreds of men and women to be successful in that time.

Ken started his career in Jackson Ms. at Hallmark Toyota in 1995 as a salesperson. Since then Ken has worked for Corporates and independents alike. He has been in every department and position in the dealership in Sales, Finance, BDC , and Senior Management. He has also held positions in Service and Parts as a Manager and Fixed ops director.

After leaving Hallmark ken became a traveling trouble shooter working with companies like Van Taulh, AMSI and were he worked with individual operators to increase productivity and Customer Satisfaction.

Recently Ken has been the Corporate Trainer and Recruiter for Paragon Honda, Acura in Queens NY #1 Honda store in the world, and White Plains Honda in White Plains NY. Ken has hired and trained in very department to increase Sales and Service profit and to create new programs and processes to promote company goals and employee retention.