GERMANTOWN, Tenn. -- The Auto Pride Network recently honored founding member and Chairman Dick Battista with the Outstanding Leadership Award at the group's membership meeting held last month in Orlando, Fla.

Auto Pride Network Board member Rick Thul spoke about Battista’s contributions to the automotive industry. Thul said, “Not only was Dick the chairman for IWD for the past 25 years, he has served on both our Auto and Truck Product Committees responsible for negotiating our deals with vendors. He has also been on the Marketing Committees for both Auto and Truck. He has also been one of our managing directors, running the company for most of these years. Dick has been a tireless advocate for IWD and all of its members. More than a few of our members that have had a problem with a vendor or were trying to obtain a line have had Dick Battista make the calls that resulted in a solution. If you ask anyone who has served on our board and committees, when it comes to tackling a project or a negotiation, there is no person we would rather have in the room than Dick Battista.”

Thul concluded by presenting Battista with IWD’s Outstanding Leadership Award on behalf of both its Auto Pride and Truck Pride members on the occasion of his retirement, noting that he was presenting the award to “a founder, a chairman of the board, a managing director, a tireless advocate for our members … but most of all … our friend.”
   
The Award read:
“As one of our founding members and our first and only chairman of the board since our incorporation in 1985, all past and present Auto Pride and Truck Pride members are in grateful appreciation for your 25 years of outstanding service. Your unique talents and leadership helped create one of the premier program distribution groups in North America and have left a lasting positive imprint on both the distributors and manufacturers in our industry.”