2018 Speakers
Keynote Speakers
Leo Cai
Executive Vice President, Chief Marketing Officer, eHi Car Services
Executive Vice President, Chief Marketing Officer, Leo Lihong Cai has served as Vice President of Sales and Marketing with eHi Car Services since April 2008. Dr. Cai has over 15 years of experience in marketing and information technology, and over six years of experience in the car rental and car services industry. Prior to joining eHi Car Services, he served as a market development director at EMC Corporation; a pre-sales director at Hewlett-Packard; and an enterprise solution and strategic alliances director at Mercury Interactive Corporation.
Alexander Sixt
Head of Corporate Development, Sixt SE
Alexander Sixt is the fourth generation of the Sixt family to serve in leadership at the world’s fifth largest car rental company and a rapidly-growing mobility provider based in Germany. Since 2015 he has served on the company's Executive Board as designated Executive Board Member for Organization and Strategy. Sixt is responsible for corporate strategy and efficiency, mergers and acquisitions, purchasing and procurement, and the development and expansion of new mobility services such as DriveNow.
Session Speakers
Israel Alvarez
Executive Director LAC, Frontline Performance Group / fpg
Israel leads FPG’s Latin American and the Caribbean automotive and Hospitality client base. He has over 18 years of general operations experience in both independently owned and corporate car rental locations. He has delivered FPG sales management sessions and frontline agent training seminars with every major brand in over 20 countries while expanding FPG’s presence through various regions.
Andrea Amico
President , Jack Cooper Logistics, LLC
Andrea Amico is the President of Jack Cooper Logistics: a diversified provider to the remarketing industry of inspections, transportation, title and key services and, most recently, privacy protection solutions. Andrea also runs Jack Cooper’s R&D department where he is the inventor or co-inventor in four patent filings in the areas of deep-learning artificial intelligence, image processing, computer vision, and privacy protection.
Andrea chairs the Cybersecurity and Privacy initiative at the International Automotive Remarketing Alliance (IARA) where he launched a partnership with Auto-ISAC. He is a member of the Department of Homeland Security’s Cyber Information Sharing and Collaboration Program (CISCP) and is increasingly involved with government officials on the topics of Cybersecurity and Privacy for automotive.
Shayne Ashton
Emcee, PurCo
PurCo is America’s largest independent company devoted exclusively to damage recovery for the vehicle rental industry.
Chris Brown
Executive Editor, Auto Rental News
Chris Brown is the executive editor of Business Fleet Magazine and Auto Rental News for Bobit Business Media. Through these publications, online newsletters, trade events and associations, Chris covers all aspects of the fleet world, including fleet management, manufacturer fleet activities, the fleet leasing industry, vehicle remarketing, rental industry news, car rental taxation and legislation as well as automotive environmental initiatives and trends. Chris is actively involved in the National Vehicle Leasing Association and produces the Car Rental Show. Chris is relied on as industry resource in matters relating to car rental by major media outlets such as the Washington Post, New York Times and National Public Radio.
Stewart Brown
Vice President of Revenue Management, Advantage/EZ Rent A Car
Stewart Brown is currently the Vice President of Revenue management for Advantage and EZ Rent A Car. He has been in the car rental industry for over twenty five years working in both the North American and European markets. He has held various Sales, Marketing Product, Fleet, and Revenue Management positions with Alamo and Dollar Thrifty. Stewart has managed broker accounts from both a relationship and economic perspective.
Shawn Concannon
Executive Vice President, TSD Rental LLC
Shawn Concannon joined TSD in 2007. With more than 20 years of car rental and dealership experience, Shawn is responsible for TSD’s global positioning and growth strategies across all of our SaaS solutions while maximizing our company’s operational effectiveness in the marketplace. Driving new business towards our proven solutions and maintaining strong partnerships with current business is what Shawn lives by. Prior to TSD, Shawn had worked for Enterprise Rent-a-Car for more than 10 years.
James Dalglish
Managing Director, GO Rentals
James is a highly experienced Managing Director with a demonstrated history over 17 years working in the car rental industry in New Zealand. He has been a key cog in GO Rentals growth from just a few cars at one location in Auckland to NZ's largest independent operator with a fleet of over 3000 vehicles across 6 locations. James is also vice president of the Rental Vehicle Association and really enjoys working collaboratively to improve the industry in New Zealand. James is a keen business strategist and loves digital marketing and innovation. In his spare time rugby is his major passion, but he also enjoys cycling and paddleboarding.
Tony Davis
CEO, CarRental8
After spending over 25 years in the car rental business working in a number of different capacities with both Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group as well as Hertz, Tony Davis decided to chart a different course and enter the online space as a car rental broker. In 2016, along with his business partners, they purchased CarRental8.com, a Tampa, FL based car rental broker which had been in operation since 2008. Tony brings a unique perspective on how operators and brokers can work in partnership in today's dynamic distribution environment.
Helder Dias
Director of Operations, Ace Rent A Car / Roam Rental Car
Helder's passion for cars started some time ago when he was 10 years old about the time cassette players were becoming mainstream. That passion continued as an adult to form a 20 year career in the rental car industry. Helder has managed many rental locations in several cities throughout the U.S. and is currently Director of Operations in the South Florida region with Ace Rent A Car. Utilizing years of knowledge in market analysis, fleet acquisition and disposition with program, lease and risk units to maximize revenue opportunities.
Sharon Faulkner
Executive Director, American Car Rental Association (ACRA)
Sharon Faulkner is the Executive Director of the American Car Rental Association. She has been involved with the car rental industry since the 1970’s. She was the owner/operator of Thrifty and Dollar Rent A Car in Albany, NY for over a decade and worked with corporate Avis/Budget Group before becoming the director of ACRA. She has been a board member of each national car rental association and has always been very involved with the legislation that affects the car rental industry. Sharon advocates extensively to promote sensible legislation on both a national and state level.
Rich Frakes
General Manager, Desert Cab Company
30+ years in the transportation business in Las Vegas. He has extensive experience in the HR and management of mid-size to large companies with a diverse workforce that encompasses all ages, genders, races, religions and cultures.
Joe Furnari
Chief Executive Officer, HYRECAR Inc.
Mr. Furnari was running a small fleet of vehicles via the Hyrecar platform before becoming the CEO. At that time he was also a Portfolio Manager for the Palisades Group, managing a $5.3B mortgage loan portfolio in Los Angeles. Prior to moving to California he worked for Morgan Stanley’s Sales and Trading desk in New York. Mr. Furnari started his career in JPMorgan’s credit training program modeling fixed income mortgage and asset backed securities.
John Healy
Managing Director, Equity Research Analyst, Northcoast Research
John joined Northcoast Research in May 2009 as Managing Director and Equity Research Analyst covering the Business Services sector, with specific emphasis on the Car Rental and Industrial Services, Commercial Services and Staffing industries. Prior to joining Northcoast Research, John was an Associate and Senior Analyst at FTN Midwest Securities from 2003-2009. John and his team have developed an extensive network of industry contacts to draw from, including private equipment rental operators, equipment auction operators, auto auction operators, private U.S. and international professional, industrial, and commercial staffing operators. John has been quoted, and his work cited, by The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, Bloomberg, CNBC, Reuters, USA Today, and a number of industry trade publications. He has presented his research findings to a number of private employment/staffing operators and Automotive and Travel industry trade groups.
Heather Henson
VP Business Development, Kogniz
Ms. Henson is a former Agent with the US Secret Service. Her job duties entailed presidential protection and investigating federal crimes, which often included persons using fake ID and credit cards to rent vehicles. Heather also spent two years with the FBI Counter Terrorism Task Force, followed by two years at the IG's office, two years responding to disasters for FEMA and then was brought in to be the senior briefer to Secretary Chertoff for all Department of Homeland Security operations. Heather is now VP Business Development with Kogniz, Inc, a facial and object live video recognition company at the cutting edge of AI, convolutional neural networks, edge compute, and facial recognition.
Wes Hurst
Attorney, Polsinelli
Wes Hurst is an attorney with over 20 years of rental car industry experience. He has defended rental car clients in numerous class actions, negligent entrustment cases and other types of claims throughout the country. Additionally, Wes has authored a number of articles for Auto Rental News and has made presentations to clients on legal developments in the rental car industry and best practices for litigation management. He is in the Los Angeles office of Polsinelli, a national law firm with 19 offices.
Jerame Jackson
Vice President of Fleet, Fox Rent A Car
Jerame Jackson is Vice President of Fleet for Fox Rent A Car and contributes more than 18 years of experience in vehicle disposal, acquisition, system development, strategic and tactical analysis, and process improvement. He has extensive knowledge managing disposal channels, system architecture and design, Lean Six Sigma initiatives, fleet management, budgeting, data analytics, contract negotiations, vendor relations, and vehicle purchasing. Prior to joining Fox Rent A Car, Jerame served as the National Remarketing Manager for Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group.
Adam Jaynes
Claims Specialist, PurCo Fleet Services, Inc.
During 10 years experience as an insurance broker specializing in servicing the Spanish-speaking community, Jaynes has developed a unique perspective of how to work with clients from Latin America. Currently, he has over a year of experience as a Claims Specialist providing damage recovery to rental agencies in the US and Internationally.
Ryan Kerzner
Managing Director of Sales and Marketing, Midway Car Rental
Ryan Kerzner is a SoCal native with a passion for automobiles and helping people. He began his car rental career almost 20 years ago while attending CalState University Northridge. After earning a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in Marketing, Ryan went on to manage hotel sales at Budget Rent a Car. In 2007, he joined Midway Car Rental and held several positions from a Branch Manager to now the Managing Director of Sales and Marketing. Midway is perfectly positioned to have significant growth in 2018 with his teams goals and strategies put into action.
Chad Knavel
Vice President/GM, Rugged Rental
Chad Knavel has run Rugged Rental & Sales located in Salt Lake City Utah for the past twelve years. Prior to coming to Rugged, Chad had been the Sales & Marketing Director for First Choice Solutions, a National company that provided vehicle claims solutions to the insurance industry. In his time at Rugged, the company has grown from 90 vehicles to a fleet of over 400 vehicles. Rugged prides itself in customer retention and has developed a very loyal clientele of recreational travelers, businesses, and local renters. Rugged has won the CRX - Renter Rated Award two of the past three years. Chad attributes this to excellent staff who prove exceptional customer service and always giving the customer more than what was expected.
Gaurav Kohli
Chief Technology Officer, Fox Rent A Car
Gaurav is the Founder of P2P Car Sharing Company JustShareIt which got acquired by Fox Rent-A-Car in 2016. As CTO of Fox Rent-A-Car, he has applied his extensive experience in product design and development, security, data analytics and telematics in the automotive industry, to revolutionize the way vehicles are rented and shared. Prior to founding the company, Gaurav was a founding member and Director of Product Development for Xtime, an Automotive Service CRM platform serving automotive manufacturers and automotive service departments. He grew the company from initial concept to a very profitable market leader and finally the company was acquired by Cox Automotive for $325M. He was also a partner at AltosResearch, the leading provider of real-time information and analysis to the real estate industry.
Arun Kumar
Director, AlixPartners
Arun is a Director in AlixPartners' car rental and automotive practices in North America. He has over twenty years of consulting and industry experience with a particular focus on the future of mobility and transportation within the context of autonomous and electric vehicles. Arun has advised clients in the mobility and transportation space helping companies develop strategy and operations excellence. Arun has been frequently quoted in Bloomberg, US News & World Report, PBS Nightly Business Report, Trucks.com, and Reuters. Founded in 1981, AlixPartners helps clients address critical situations and create bottom line value with a unique consulting model.
Sharky Laguana
CEO, Bandago Van Rental
Sharky Laguana founded Bandago in 2003. He came to the rental industry through an unusual path: as the guitarist in a major label band (Creeper Lagoon) he rented numerous tour vans and would often think about how the experience could be improved. After a lengthy tour interruption due to a rental van breakdown he decided to build his own van rental company. Starting with a single van in front of his apartment, he slowly grew the company, which now has hundreds of vehicles and offices nationwide. Along the way he wrote the web-based software used for all operations.
Chay Lowden
Sales & Technology Director, Green Motion International
Chay Lowden is the second generation of the Lowden family to drive the development of the world's fastest growing, eco-focused and 100% franchised car rental brand, Green Motion. Chay is challenged with the continued evolution of the company, developing a full suite of mobility services to meet the needs of the future of vehicle rental. Already Chay has been responsible for the development and launch of a fully interactive app which contains industry-first features, laying the path for a whole range of innovative products that will ensure that Green Motion maintains its position as one of the industry's strongest innovators.
Richard Lowden
CEO & Founder, Green Motion International
Richard Lowden is recognised as one of the world's most experienced leaders in the field of vehicle rental franchising, having spent the last 25 years developing 100% franchised brands both on a European and worldwide basis. Launched in 2007, Green Motion has become the largest fully franchised vehicle rental system throughout North & Central America, Europe and the Middle East. Creating Green Motion's eco brand along with the introduction of the latest technologies Richard was able to cause major disruption, developing clear space within what is considered to be a very congested and competitive sector. Richard remains focused on developing Green Motion to be at the forefront of the new era of mobility.
Angela Margolit
Founder & President, Bluebird Auto Rental Systems
Since 1982, Bluebird has been providing software to the vehicle rental industry. In 1988, Angela Margolit went to work for them as a sales rep. In 1993, she bought the auto rental division to form Bluebird Auto Rental Systems. Her first goal was to re-write the software in windows, and she hasn’t looked back since. Now a web-based solution, Bluebird software is endorsed by the majority of car rental franchisees and independents, plus the largest OEMs.
Michael Meyer
President, Rate-Highway, Inc.
Michael Meyer, co-founder of Rate-Highway, is the world leader in increasing revenue through ground-breaking Revenue Management and Competitive Intelligence systems. Prior, Michael worked at Microsoft, managing Fortune 1000 companies to implement Microsoft software and guiding the development of critical line of business applications. After leaving Microsoft in 1998, Michael co-created the first commercial Internet rate shopping product for the hotel industry called Check-Rate. After Check-Rate was sold to Hotel Industry giant Travelclick in 2001, Michael focused exclusively on the car rental market, and his new company, Rate-Highway, provided the first rental car Internet shopping tool leading to the development
Luis Miguel Navarrete
Director of Operations, AVIS Mexico & Carflex, AVIS Mexico & Carflex
Luis Miguel leads Avis México´s Operations since 2000 and has over 20 years of general operations experience. He is responsible not only for the daily rental business but also for the long term operations and retail goals. Luis remains focused on developing AVIS Mexico to be at the forefront of the Mexican market with the highest customer satisfaction. Currently, he is developing a new low cost and high service oriented brand, Carflex, which is part of the same Company and will start operations in leisure locations across Mexico.
Felipe Ocáriz
Head of Revenue Development, Volaris
Felipe joined Volaris in 2013 and ever since he has greatly contributed on the revenue development of the company. Over time, Felipe has been responsible of managing multiple key initiatives, including insurance products, the Co-branded credit cards and multiple forms of payment. As a product development expert he integrated Car Rentals, Hotels and Activities into Volaris’ ancillary product portfolio. Today he is currently leading Volaris’ ancillary revenue strategy, where he is faced with the challenge of taking non ticket revenue to new heights.
John Possumato
President & CEO, DriveItAway
A retail car industry veteran and attorney, John Possumato is in the forefront of automotive technology and “Mobility as a Service” (Car Sharing, Ride Sharing/Ride Hailing) business models for car dealers and car rental companies. He is the Founder & CEO of DriveItAway Inc., the first company focused on providing a turn-key Car Sharing platform to car dealers and car rental operators as a means by which traditional industry sectors can adapt and profit from these new and rapidly growing services today, while preparing for the future. Possumato is a noted trade publication author and speaker on Mobility as a Service business models. He holds a J.D. from the Law School at the University of Pennsylvania, and a B.S. from the Wharton School.
Leslie Pujo
Attorney, Plave Koch
Leslie Pujo is attorney with Plave Koch. Leslie’s practice focuses on two primary areas – vehicle rental law and franchise law. Leslie also oversees the editing and publication of the Federal and State Guide to Vehicle Rental Law. Leslie was in-house franchise counsel at a publicly-traded hotel franchising company and also was an associate at a large, Washington, D.C. law firm. In addition, Leslie previously served as an adjunct professor at the George Washington University Law School and the University of Maryland University College.
Lourdes Reveles
COO, MEX Rent-A-Car
Lourdes currently oversees 25 locations across Mexico and also San Diego and CBX in USA. She has over 10 years of experience in customer satisfaction, strategic action planning, operational efficiency, personnel development that has delivered leaders in areas such as sales, quality management, and process improvement. She started working in the Car Rental industry four years ago. Due to her outstanding collaboration with Operations, she was promoted as the COO for the same company last year. Lourdes lives and works through her convictions by empathizing and keeping a close communication with all areas of MEX Rent A Car which she sees as one big and solid family.
Jordi Rivero
CPO, Mex Rent-A-Car
Jordi Rivero graduated from the University of Guadalajara where he majored in Marketing. In 2012, he became part of Mex Alliance as a member of the Rate Management Team and also in control of all International Affairs. Mex Rent-A-Car is the first international company that focuses its efforts on the Latin-American Market and it's Spanish speakers. Nowadays, he works as CPO for Mex Rent-A-Car and also oversees the development of Mex Rent-A-Car Affiliate Program around the globe. He strongly believes that success is achieved with sustained effort and a great attitude.
Andrew Rodriguez
Vice President, Automotive Solutions, Frontline Performance Group / fpg
Andrew Rodriguez is Vice President, Automotive Solutions with the Frontline Performance Group (fpg). For over three decades Andrew has led successful operational and sales teams in the Automotive, Car Rental and Staffing Industries.
Robert L. Rosenthal
Attorney and Counselor, Howard & Howard
Mr. Rosenthal serves as partner in charge of Howard & Howard’s labor and employment group in Las Vegas. Mr. Rosenthal defends employers against complaints involving Title VII, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Family Medical Leave Act, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, and the Fair Labor Standards Act, the National Labor Relations Act, as well as corresponding state law claims and administrative charges. Mr. Rosenthal’s practice also emphasizes providing counseling, risk management, and litigation-related advice on a wide variety of personnel issues, including sexual harassment and discrimination, employment agreements, non-compete agreements, trade secrets, employee handbooks, and workplace policies and procedures.
Stuart Rothenberg
Senior Editor, Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales
One of the go-to political analysts of the last three decades, Stu Rothenberg has embodied the rare ability to report on all the political happenings in the nation with unbiased clarity and non-partisan precision. The publication he founded, the Rothenberg Political Report, provided honest, nonpartisan reporting and clear-eyed analysis of American elections and their potential ramifications, looking at U.S. House and Senate races, elections for governor and presidential politics. Stu writes a weekly column for Capital Hill’s Roll Call, and has also written for the Washington Post. His op-eds have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and other newspapers. His political expertise has made him a common guest on the network television news circuit, where he has appeared on Meet the Press, TODAY, Face the Nation, Nightline, and The McLaughlin Group, and as a CNN political analyst for more than a decade.
Eric Rothman
President & CEO, Fast Track Mobility, LLC
President & CEO of Fast Track Mobility, LLC, a TNC fleet management company. Eric serves on ACRA’s Board, its Mobility Task Force on Autonomous Vehicles and its Legal & Legislative Committee. Eric started as a Corporate Finance Attorney at Kaye Scholar. He was SVP, Global Head of Structured Products for Assured Guaranty, and launched their Office in London. He was then Managing Director at UBS, Head of Synthetic Strategies. Next, he became President & CIO of The Zeus Organization.
Jim Schalberg
Owner & Principal, Jim Schalberg Auto Rental Solutions
Jim Schalberg is a 40 year veteran of the retail automotive industry and has been involved in the rental end of the industry since the late 70’s. Jim is the owner and principal of Jim Schalberg Auto Rental Solutions and Schalberg.com a provider of training, services and products designed specifically to help his clients “Sell More Rental Days”. Jim’s 2018 Profit Builders program includes regional meetings as well as Live Web Workshops and Private Coaching Sessions.
Alexander Shartsis
Co-founder & CEO , Perfect Price
Mr.Shartsis is co-founder and CEO of Perfect Price. Perfect Price delivers artificial intelligence for complex businesses. The Perfect Price AI platform makes millions of pricing decisions for forward thinking companies around the world, and is backed by leading investors including Steven Tamm, CTO of Salesforce. Mr. Shartsis focuses on the success of customers applying this revolutionary technology to grow their businesses. He brings together his expertise pioneering new technologies at Drawbridge and leading business development at TripIt, now part of SAP/Concur.
Ken Stellon
Strategic Initiatives, FPG
Ken Stellon leads FPGs’ strategic initiatives and product development efforts. He has nearly twenty years of experience in various sales, training and performance management roles within the hospitality, automotive and car rental industries. As a highly sought after speaker, he has presented FPG seminars to thousands of sales associates, managers and executives throughout North America, Latin America and Europe. He has gained valuable insights from leading brands like Hilton, Waldorf Astoria, Hertz, Avis Budget Group, Enterprise, Alamo-National, Virgin, AutoNation, Nissan, Universal Theme Parks and many other privately held businesses. He has written fifteen different articles on a wide variety of topics for Auto Rental News.
Alex Thibault
General Manager - North America, Vulog
Alex Thibault is the General Manager - North America for Vulog, where he is responsible for the company’s growth in North America. As such, he works with partners to create new mobility services by combining top of the line technology to fleets around the continent. He joined Vulog in 2016 after spending 10 years as a corporate lawyer and tech entrepreneur, most recently as a partner at a fast growing tech-oriented law firm where he worked with clients in the mobility industry, among others.
Andro Vrdoljak
Head of Business Development, Turo, Inc.
Andro grew up in a big family where sharing was the only “ownership model”. He is an environmentalist and tireless traveler. After learning about international equity markets at Goldman Sachs, supporting refugee asylum processes at UNHCR and various leadership roles at Egon Zehnder, Andro joined Turo to drive strategic partnerships and business development.
Carlos Vuillaume
Head of Supply Partnerships - AMERICAS, BookingGo - Rentalcars.com
Carlos Vuillaume is responsible for the commercial and strategic development of the car rental suppliers based in the Americas region. He started his car rental career at Avis France managing the Inbound business. He successively held various positions before he was given the responsibility for the development of the leisure business for Avis Budget Group Western Region (France, Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg). Carlos joined Rentalcars.com in 2016 to manage, along with a team based in Manchester, the Latin America region development. Prior to his car rental experience, Carlos held various positions in the automotive industry, banking and IT.
Simon Ward
Head of Independent Supply, Cartrawler
A veteran of 20+ years in the travel technology industry, Simon Ward leads the Supply Team at CarTrawler where he oversees the development of their global car rental supply base. He began his car rental career working with Hertz managing UK and Ireland Reservations and joined CarTrawler in its infancy back in 2008. He is currently focused on content automation and optimization.
Alan Woodland
Team Lead, Business Development, INVERS Mobility Solutions
Alan Woodland leads the Business Development team at INVERS Mobility Solutions. With years of experience contributing to financing, design and technology aspects of emerging shared mobility operation, Alan is well suited to assist clients with strategic analysis and decision support.
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