VIPAR Heavy Duty held its annual business conference, themed “Game Plan for Growth.” At the conference, chairman Bill Nolan announced Chris Baer as the organization’s new president. He also announced that Steve Crowley will remain with the organization as CEO during a transition period. Overall attendance at the Oct. 16-21, 2016 event at JW Marriott, Grande Lakes in Orlando, increased over the previous year.
In his first address as president of VIPAR Heavy Duty, Baer said the organization is growing at a faster rate than the aftermarket at large, and thanks to former president Steve Crowley’s 16-plus years of leadership, it is well positioned to sustain its market success. Baer cautioned that the aftermarket is changing, and VIPAR Heavy Duty is making plans to adapt to those changes to ensure its distributor network remains on top of the market for years to come.
“As our conference theme emphasized, we as an organization are all about providing our distributors with a game plan to successfully grow their business,” explained Baer. “Our annual meeting provided an opportunity to introduce five key initiatives to our distributors to help facilitate this: index to market, operational efficiencies, competitive advantage, technology and the global aftermarket. These initiatives are anchored by our corporate core values and vitally important to the group’s future profitability.”
The Annual Business Conference included a keynote speech by Harvey MacKay, entrepreneur and New York Times #1 best-selling business author.
A Young Leaders Forum and Lunch featured a keynote presentation by John Egan, an instructor for the American Management Association and a co-founder and principal at Workforce Innovations, on “Achieving Leadership Success Through People.” New to this year’s Young Leaders programming was a GenNext Speed Mentoring event.
The VIPAR Heavy Duty Annual Business Conference brings together the organization’s stockholder distributors, suppliers and business service partners with a vision to drive the mutual success of the organization. The 2017 VIPAR Heavy Duty Annual Business Conference will take place Oct. 15-20, 2017, JW Marriott Marco Island in Marco Island, Florida.
