IARA Member Spotlight: Jeff Bescher

Earlier this year, Jeff Bescher, president and founder of Strategic Remarketing Solutions, LLC, rejoined the International Automotive Remarketers Alliance (IARA) after a job change resulted in a brief stint of his leaving the Alliance.

From 2007 until early 2014, Bescher, who had been with ADESA for approximately 20 years during his first tenure with the Alliance, was a member of the IARA. He initially joined after Warren Byrd, executive VP of corporate development and real estate for KAR Auction Services, had asked Bescher to fill his role as the ADESA representative on the IARA board of directors. From 2010 until 2014 he acted as the Alliance’s treasurer.

After leaving ADESA and the IARA, Bescher created Strategic Remarketing Solutions. After a few years working on this new venture, his continued interest in the Alliance resulted in his rejoining the organization. Bescher spoke with IARA Executive Director Tony Long about rejoining the organization.

“Strategic Remarketing is a third party remarketing company, we provide recovery and remarketing services,” he said. “I’ve known most of the people that are still on the board with IARA for years. I’m good friends with Tim Meta, who is the current IARA president, and my company happens to be aligned operationally with Element Fleet, which is directed by Paul Seger, and he is now the vice president for the IARA. He had talked to me about joining, and I said I thought it would be a good time to come back.”

He added that he appreciates the Alliance, because it provides smaller companies with an outlet to voice their opinions in the industry and the spirit of collaboration among the members is real.

“It’s nice for smaller organizations to have their voice heard, and I think the IARA provides a platform for that to happen,” he said. “But, the IARA has also been successful in getting many of the bigger players to be a part of the organization in an effort to move the entire industry forward. I think it’s a really impressive group of people who are collaborating to make the industry better.”

Bescher said that he would be open to reprising the treasurer role with the Alliance if the opportunity arose, but said he was open to taking on different roles as well.