NADA picks Gary Gilchrist as likely 2024 chairman

WASHINGTON — The National Car Dealers Association elected Gary Gilchrist as its future vice chairman, indicating he is probable to be the group’s chairman in 2024.

Gilchrist, president of Gilchrist Chevrolet-Buick-GMC in Tacoma, Clean., was elected Tuesday to the 2023 publish during the association’s board assembly in Dallas.

Gilchrist, 69, commenced in the auto field in 1977 marketing automobiles in Tacoma immediately after graduating from higher education. He signifies Washington’s new-automobile sellers on NADA’s board of directors and is chairman of NADA’s dealership procedure committee. He was NADA treasurer in 2021.

“I am really honored to be trustworthy with the responsibility to do points that subject for dealers,” Gilchrist stated in a statement. “The car field has constantly improved with the periods, and we can do it once again. We have received to get a tricky glance at ourselves and discover techniques to adapt to new technologies and new requires.”
 
NADA’s 65-member board of directors also elected William H. Willis Jr., president of Willis Automotive Team and symbolizing Delaware sellers on the NADA board, as secretary. Kirt Frye, president of Sunnyside Automotive Group in Middleburg Heights, Ohio, was reelected as treasurer.

Also Tuesday, Geoffrey Pohanka, recent NADA vice chairman and chairman of Pohanka Automotive Team in Capitol Heights, Md., was elected chairman for 2023.

Pohanka, 65, represents new-car or truck dealers in metro Washington, D.C., on the NADA board of administrators and is a 3rd-generation supplier who begun in the automotive company in 1973. His dealership team sells 15 models at outlets across Maryland, Virginia and Texas. The company was established by his grandfather in 1919.

Pohanka’s late father, Jack, was a pioneer in dual franchising who coined the term “megadealer” and also was a previous NADA president.

Pohanka will realize success 2022 Chairman Mike Alford, vendor principal of Marine Chevrolet in Jacksonville, N.C., and Trent Cadillac-Buick-GMC in New Bern, N.C.

“As someone who grew up in the motor vehicle company and with my family’s involvement with NADA for generations, I am honored to take the reins as the next NADA chairman,” Pohanka stated in assertion. “The vehicle marketplace is a gratifying and fascinating company, and I’m fortuitous to be a element of it. NADA has an astounding board and an amazing workers. Together, we can generate a much better natural environment for the market, to enable create a vivid economic climate and more powerful communities.”

The new conditions start off at the 2023 NADA Present in Dallas, which is getting planned for Jan. 26-29.