| |
ASA Collision Division director recognized with ABRN Industry Leadership, Hall of Eagles awards.
By Bruce Adams, Special to ASRWNow.com
 |
| Darrell Amberson |
Darrell Amberson, Automotive Service Association (ASA) Collision Division director and president of Lehman’s Garage, a six-location collision repair operation based in Bloomington, Minn., received the 2009 ABRN Industry Leadership Award during the Collision Industry Achievement Award ceremony Nov. 3 in Las Vegas. The awards were presented at a lunch break during the Collision Industry Conference (CIC).
Amberson, who was tending to business outside the room when the award was announced, said he was surprised by the honor. “You never expect to receive this type of award,” he says. “It’s a great honor.”
He currently serves on the Automotive Service Association (ASA) board of directors as Collision Division director, and also holds the fifth seat on the board’s executive committee. As ASA Collision Division director, Amberson also serves as chairman of the Collision Division Operations Committee.
Amberson is a 37-year veteran of the collision repair industry and was the NACE chairman in 2007 and 2008.
Other awards presented during the ceremony were:
• Fix Auto National’s Customer Service Index Champion to Fix Auto Illinois, Tennessee and Alabama operating group. The award was received by Nick Gojneric, owner of Collision Plus Auto Body Repair Centers, with four locations in Illinois.
• Collision Industry Electronic Commerce Association’s Outstanding Contribution to CSi Complete.
• Collision Industry Electronic Commerce Association’s Electronic Commerce Company of the Year to Performance Claims.
• Toby Chess “Special Thank You’s” for participation in the training of first responders to Progressive Insurance, Kent Automotive, The Van Tuyl Automotive Group and 911 Collision.
• CSi Complete’s Clearly Elite Award to Darren Huggins from the Van Tuyl Group.
• VeriFacts’ Automotive Repair Center ACE Award to Marco’s Auto Body, San Gabriel, Calif.
• VeriFacts’ March Taylor Technician ACE Award to Jeff Mase, Collision Plus, Glen Carbon and Edwardsville, Ill.
• VeriFacts’ Commitment to Consumer Award to Chrysler Corp. and to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.
• Collision Industry “Quiet” Award to Charles Dillard, Precision Collision, Beaverton, Ore. |
He participates actively in a number of industry groups including the CIC Database Task Force, the URG Advisory Committee and the Database Enhancement Gateway (DEG) Joint Operating Committee and the CCC/Motor Industry Forum Group.
Amberson started working part-time in a dealership while in high school as a car runner/detailer. He continued to work there while working on a degree in mechanical engineering at the University of Minnesota Institute of Technology.
Amberson said the young dealership had a hot product line — Oldsmobile — and was growing rapidly and provided a lot of opportunity. “There was an overabundance of engineers and if you could find a job, starting pay was low. I changed plans and pursued a career within the dealership.”
He began working as a warranty administrator for the dealership when they offered him a position to price warranty work for strictly the body shop and offered to teach him estimating.
“It suited me, and I enjoyed it. I thrived on the challenge of getting all the damage covered on the estimate and performing the calculations. Within a few years I was an assistant manager and became the manager a few years after that. The body shop grew to a staff of more than 25 people.”
He went to work for Lehman’s, and specifically Dick Cossette, in 1990 when he became aware of ASA and Cossette’s involvement within the industry. That started his involvement with the association. Cossette, who had been the company’s owner since 1969, made Amberson general manager in 1999. Cossette served as his boss, friend and mentor until his passing in August 2002. Amberson had become president of the company earlier that same year.
Amberson spent two years as a professional drag racer of Nitro funny cars and finished third in the International Hot Rod Association’s World Championship Points Race in 1989.
He serves as chairman of the Hennepin Technical Colleges Advisory Council, and he earned his Accredited Automotive Manager (AAM) designation in 1998. At NACE 2006, he was awarded the inaugural Russ Verona Memorial IBIS Scholarship.
Later during the awards ceremony, Amberson also was presented with the Hall of Eagles award for his long-time meritorious service to the industry.
Bruce Adams has 25 years of experience writing articles for the business press, corporate publications and a daily newspaper. He was responsible for a variety of corporate publications at The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., where he worked for 10 years. He also has 10 years of experience writing and editing trade publications that serve the trucking, mining, concrete and hospitality industries. He's been writing for ABRN since July 2007.
Reprinted with permission.
2009 © ABRN/Advanster Publications.
|
|
Nov. 4-7, 2009
