Automotive Fleet, March 2018

AUTOMOTIVE FLEET I MARCH 2018 46 Dave Meisel was named vice president fleet management for Quanta Services Inc which is headquartered in Houston Texas He assumed this position in September 2017 At Quanta Services Meisel provides executive leadership strategic planning and technical support in the areas of fleet management and aviation operations to the operating companies within the Quanta Services family His major responsibilities include fleet operations aviation aircraft and helicopter operations corporate fleet planning and strategy and fleet financial management Overall scope of responsibility is 48000 vehicles and more than 80 operating companies Previously Meisel was senior director transportation aviation services at Pacific Gas Electric PG E in San Francisco Calif At PG E he managed overall operations of the transportation and aviation departments His major responsibilities included DOT regulatory compliance aviation aircraft and helicopter operations corporate fleet planning strategy fleet financial management fleet engineering fleet IT corporate alternate fuel and fleet sustainability strategy aircraft services and garage operations Overall scope of responsibility was 250 million annual operating budget 200 million annual capital budget 14000 vehicles 500 plus employees and 72 locations Joshua Chamuler was named director of transportation at ThriftBooks which is based in Seattle Wash and is the largest online seller of used books www thriftbooks com in the world He assumed this position in November 2017 ThriftBooks has 11 fulfillment and processing centers throughout the U S and ships more than 15 million used books a year around the world Previously Chamuler was program manager fleet operations for the logistics division of Amazon In this position Chamuler developed operational processes for secure vehicle delivery fleet utilization and vehicle sharing programs Among his other responsibilities at Amazon was the creation and management of B2B relationships with local dealerships and local vendors towing body shops and logistics partners in all western U S markets Earlier Chamuler was the fleet steering manager North America for BMW of North America LLC where he had oversight of 1500 car sharing vehicles in three different markets in the U S Karin Meersman was named European fleet manager for Stanley Black Decker She assumed the position in January 2018 Prior to joining Stanley Black Decker Meersman was corporate fleet manager EMEA at Johnson Controls International From 2016 until late last year she was corporate fleet manager at Adient the new name for JCIs automotive business Earlier Meersman worked for Athlon in 1990 before moving to Alphabet Belgium as senior account manager in 2003 From 2006 to 2010 she headed the account management and order delivery payment department at Alphabet Belgium PERSONNEL PERSONALS MEISEL Quanta Services Inc CHAMULER ThriftBooks MEERSMAN Stanley Black Decker Jerry Duffy senior VP leasing fleet management for The Bancorp Bank retired Dec 31 2017 capping a 45 year career in small fleet leasing market Duffy started his career in fleet leasing in 1971 after graduating from Villanova University with a degree in economics Duffy went to work for Genway Corporation which set up General Motors dealers to use a leasing finance plan which at the time was still a relatively new and not well understood form of vehicle funding Soon after a dealer with a Genway franchise went under and I was asked to run the small leasing company that Genway was forced to take over said Duffy I had to quickly learn all facets of the leasing business Duffy continued to work for various business interests owned by Eustace Wolfington the founder of Genway until 1975 when he had the opportunity to start a vehicle leasing department within the State National Bank of Maryland The department was as unique then as it is today there is no leasing company The lease was direct between the lessee and the bank said Duffy The State National Bank of Maryland was owned by the Cohen family from Philadelphia They understood leasing and allowed me to grow the portfolio State National Bank was eventually sold and Betsy Cohen started Jefferson Bank which then bought the leasing portfolio of State National Bank She later sold Jefferson Bank and started The Bancorp Bank and the whole thing happened again said Duffy I worked for Betsy Cohen for 40 plus years with the leasing department following Cohen from bank to bank At the time of Duffys retirement The Bancorp Bank had a portfolio of over 12000 vehicles on lease operating in 48 states Over the years our direct from the bank lease competed with dealers brokers and the majors We always focused on where they didnt go small commercial fleets and government primarily local governments said Duffy More important than access to lease financing these end users needed assistance in how to buy manage and dispose of motor vehicles We became their fleet managers Duffy was an active member of the National Vehicle Leasing Association NVLA and supported its efforts to protect the interests of independent leasing companies from regulators the financial community and manufacturers Small Fleet Leasing Pioneer Retires DUFFY Retired The Bancorp Bank