After weeks of intense judging by industry leaders, the finalists for NAFA's 2015 Fleet Excellence Awards have been chosen. The Fleet Excellence Awards (or FLEXY for short) were designed to shine a spotlight on those who have impacted fleet management in both the corporate and public fleet segments during the previous year. Three finalists were chosen for each of the seven categories. Winners will be announced during the Third Annual Fleet Excellence Awards Gala on Tuesday, April 14 at the Orange County Convention Center, Orlando, Fla. during NAFA's annual conference.
The FLEXY Awards were open to all fleet professionals throughout the United States and Canada, regardless of whether or not they were members of NAFA Fleet Management Association.
The list of finalists is as follows:
Excellence In Corporate Sustainability Accomplishments
Kristen Collins, Genentech
Erin Gilchrist, Safelite AutoGlass
Pam O’Mealy, Daiichi Sankyo
Excellence In Public Sustainability Accomplishments
Richard Battersby, CAFM, UC Davis/City of Oakland
Douglas Bond, Alameda County
Fleet Management Centre/Michael Cole, Ontario Ministry of Transportation, Canada
Outstanding Achievement In Corporate Fleet Management
Brad Bohnen, Ericsson Inc.
Erin Gilchrist, Safelite AutoGlass
Jonathan Kamanns, Ingersoll-Rand
Outstanding Achievement In Public Fleet Management
Richard Coulson, City of LA
Rick Longobart, City of Santa Ana
Ricky Nieman, Texas Dept. of Transportation
Excellence In Public Fleet Safety
Christie Boone & Jason Allan, City of Edmonton, Canada
Greg Hansen, Washington State DoT
Dennis Kincade, County of York
Excellence In Corporate Fleet Safety
Chad Fay, NPL
Theresa O’Connor, Mars Inc.
Keith Walker, Kimble Recycling & Disposal
Excellence In Fleet Leadership
Fleet Management Centre/Michael Cole, Ontario Ministry of Transportation, Canada
Richard Coulson, City of LA
Rick Longobart, City of Santa Ana
NAFA's 2015 Institute & Expo, which takes place April 14-17 at the Orange County Convention Center, is regarded as the fleet industry event of the year. Fleet professionals from throughout the world attend to learn about the latest technologies, best practices, and industry trends from over 60 hours of fleet educational sessions. In addition, the conference features an Expo Floor with more than 250 vendors showing the latest products and services.
The 2015 I&E includes a powerful keynote presentations from motivational speaker and author Shawn Achor; a special panel featuring OEM executives (Fritz Ahadi, Ford; Frank Dankovich, FCA USA; Ed Peper, GM; and Paul Jontig, Toyota); NAFA's Legislative Counsel in Washington D.C., Patrick O'Connor; and Fleet Management Company Executives Tom Callahan, MBA, President, Donlen Corporation; Chris Conroy, President, ARI; Daniel Frank, President, Wheels Services, Wheels, Inc.; James Halliday, President and CEO, Element Fleet Management; Michael Pitcher, President and CEO, LeasePlan USA; Greg Tepas, President and CEO, EMKAY Inc.; and Kristi Webb, President and CEO, GE Capital Fleet Services.