Auction Academy’s Class Group 4 completed its seventh quarterly session during a trip to Dallas, Texas, the group’s second to last meeting before graduating from the academy.

Auction Academy is a continuing education program developed by TPC Management Company (TPC) for professionals in the auto auction industry. The academy also provides a two-year training and development experience for automotive auction professionals, according to TPC.

Classroom sessions during the trip also included presentations by Michael Daseke of Liquid Motors; John Poteet, managing partner of Louisiana’s First Choice Auto Auction, and Steve Jordan, CEO of NIADA. The session was hosted by America’s Auto Auction and Ben Lange, the auction's CEO, who led the group on a tour of America’s flagship auction in Dallas.

The group also visited the headquarters of Santander/Chrysler Capital where Brent Huisman, EVP asset remarketing at Santander/Chrysler Capital, and his team presented a comprehensive review of the remarketing program for the two companies’ portfolios.

The fourth Class Group’s next and final meeting will be in Las Vegas during the NAAA/NRC conference at the Red Rock Hotel in Las Vegas. The event will mark the group's graduation from Auction Academy.

“I cannot express enough gratitude to the many industry executives who take their time to share their experience and expertise with our Academy groups all over the country. For instance, Ben Lange of America’s Auto Auction not only believes in the program enough to have two students in this Class Group, but also shares his own insights with the group and welcomes the class to his Dallas auction on sale day,” said Pierre Pons, CEO of Auction Academy.

Auction Academy also held a fleet/lease session during the academy’s One Day Seminar series in late September in Franklin, Tenn.  The session, which included attendees from independent auctions around the country, featured presentations and discussions on various aspects of the commercial account business.

Presenters at the series included Steve Leslie of Cherokee Publishing, Mike Antich of Bobit Business Media, Jeff Roberts of OVE, Brent Ramel of Smart Auction, Joe Miller of AutoIMS, Kevin Wilson of United Auto Recovery and Memphis Auto Auction, Dan Diedrich of Auction Edge, and Terry Mollica of Metrogistics. The session began with a pre-meeting discussion of two case studies on compliance, led by Bob Sullivan of XLerate Auction Group and Joe Lemonds of Carolina Auto Auction.

The seminar series will hold its last session of 2016 in downtown Nashville, Tenn. on Dec. 5-7 with a session regarding compliance.

“In planning both our two-year program and the shorter focused seminar series, we continue to cover topics that are critical to the overall development of leaders in our industry and success of their auctions. The enthusiastic participation from all corners of the industry confirms that Auction Academy plays a critical role in the remarketing industry and has raised the bar for career education,” said Randall McCathren, COO of Auction Academy.

Auction Academy has opened registration for Class Group 5 of the two-year program, which will kick off its eight-session program in the spring of 2017, said Pons.