F&I and Showroom, Industry Summit 2019

www fi magazine com 5 F I and Showroom Industry Summit 2019 A Attorney Will Green has served as president of the Louisiana Auto Dealers Association since 2016 Green met with F I and Showroom shortly before his appearance on the Executive Panel at Industry Summit held in New Orleans for the first time this year to discuss the issues facing dealers F I providers regulators and consumers in his state Will where are you from I am originally from a small town Ruston La a great town up in Gods country Apple pie and all those things But Ive been in Baton Rouge now for almost 10 years I went to undergrad at a small school and law school at Mississippi College in Jackson Miss Then I came to Baton Rouge and met a Baton Rouge girl my wife Kristin and were here to stay Did you have any idea law school would lead to the car business I did not no But my family was in the car business My great grandfather owned and operated dealerships he passed down to my grandfather who passed the business on to my dad By the time I was born theyd sold the new car business and my dad was operating a used car dealership My mom is in business development So I had two parents who were great at sales and neither one ever met a stranger At the end of the day being an attorney is just selling your position to the judge using the evidence law and facts Having grown up around and learned from two great sales people I thought law school seemed like a great option How did you end up at LADA I spent the first several years of my career doing workers compensation defense Then I was fortunate enough to get the opportunity to start doing legislation and policy work One thing I dont think a lot of people realize is that LADA is actually a couple different organizations We are the trade association for 345 car and truck dealers and about 100 associate members But we also have a workers comp fund We provide workers comp insurance for about 85 of our dealers I had the workers comp and lobbying background coupled with my love of the car business so I like to think its a perfect fit Did you spend much time working at your dads dealership I did but mostly just washing cars going to auctions things like that And you became aware of the organization Of course And I knew Bob Israel who was my predecessor fairly well He ran it for over 30 years He was just so well respected and the association was obviously a well respected organization I knew the association and the good work they did and all the great people and businesses they represented I was lobbying for the Chamber of Commerce when Bob announced his retirement I jumped at the opportunity to apply Must be tough replacing a legend It is And I was much younger than most of the other people who applied The big joke when I got the job was So youre the new guy How old are you And its an easy answer to remember Bob started at LADA in 1983 and thats the year I was born So he had been president of the association for as long as I had been alive He did a great job and left big shoes to fill Has it gone the way you expected Any curveballs One thing I didnt fully realize and maybe a lot of people dont realize is that there are so many businesses under the one roof of a dealership Youve got sales service finance and insurance and body shops and all the legal and HR concerns that come with them I once heard a dealer say the only business more regulated than dealerships is health insurance And that may be true I learn something new every day Ive had a great mentor in Bob and a fantastic board of directors to lean on Do you have a rotating dealer chair like NADA I do Our current chair is David Fabre an Acura Infiniti and Subaru dealer Our board meets 11 times a year and David and I talk quite frequently And we still have a lot to discuss Whats unique about the Louisiana dealer body One of the great things about Louisiana is that of the roughly 345 dealers we have all but a few are locally owned independent dealers They live in the communities they serve They know their customers Their kids have grown up in those communities Some are second and third generation dealers They give millions of dollars a year to charities They are stalwarts of their communities They are some of the biggest tax generators So that says a lot And I think that goes a long way There may not be a dealership in every single town but they are all over the state Having that is a tremendous asset to our state to our customers That I think goes a long way in helping us overcome a lot of challenges some states may have that we dont As the head of a dealer association in a state that is prone to severe weather are you concerned about GAP losses and how they might affect the market We had heavy flooding in 2016 much like Houston and that was a huge huge hit for a lot of our industry partners But at same time as a consumer if you had Louisiana Automobile Dealers Association President Will Green believes the dealers in his state succeed by putting their customers and communities first and maximizing production and emphasizing compliance in the F I department BY TARIQ KAMAL