The 13th annual Auto International Association (AIA) Luncheon/Awards Program yesterday featured the presentation of the AIA People Awards to those who have made significant contributions to the import automotive aftermarket.
This year’s honorees are:
AIA Lifetime Achievement Award: Chris von Lenski, CRP Industries, Inc.
For more than 40 years, Chris von Lenski has been a leader at CRP Industries having significantly contributed to the company’s success and growth in the U.S., Canadian and Mexican import automotive aftermarket parts business.
Von Lenski first joined CRP in 1968, and has held many key marketing and sales positions within the company, most recently serving in the role of executive vice president of sales, marketing and product development. His hard work and ingenuity grew CRP from a tire business to a multi-parts supplier on an international scale serving the import specialist distribution market.
Von Lenski was responsible for launching CRP’s original Meistersatz repair kit for axle boot and gasket repair kits. Today, von Lenski continues to have an indispensable relationship with CRP by serving as a consultant.
AIA Person of the Year Award: Dan Lelchuk, Centric Parts
Dan Lelchuk, president, Centric Parts, has been part of the aftermarket since 1976. He held positions with Beck/Arnley, Brembo and Autospecialty before co-founding Centric in 2000.
Starting as a very junior counterman and driver at age 16, Lelchuk worked at parts stores through high school and college. He joined Barry Breslow at International Parts Service in 1984. As the import aftermarket consolidated, he moved on to Beck/Arnley, Western Automotive Warehouse Distributors, Autospecialty and Brembo North America. In 2000, he teamed with Dino Crescentini as
co-founder and president of Centric Parts.
Lelchuk has helped grow Centric Parts into one of the largest aftermarket brake manufacturers and suppliers. Centric’s catalogs, a practical standard in the industry, now boast more than 40,000 braking system parts supporting nearly every make and model from passenger cars to medium-duty trucks. The company has earned a string of braking technology patents, has been repeatedly recognized by the Friction Materials Standards Institute, AIA and multiple program distribution groups for catalog and program excellence, and has earned the highly coveted TÜV approval on several products.
AIA Lifetime Achievement Award: CR “Dick” Berreman, Berreman & Co.
In 1956, Dick Berreman started as a factory salesman with Pacco Inc., a carburetor parts manufacturer. He moved up quickly to sales manager and left in 1961 to start his rep firm, Berreman & Co., which he has built over 50 years into a very successful company now representing multiple parts manufacturers worldwide.
As a strong family man, Berreman is proud to have recently introduced his grandson into the business and hopes the future success of his rep firm will be carried on by his long-time partner, John Driscoll, and his grandson, Rhett Palmer.
AIA Hall of Fame Award: Lee Kadrich, AAP
Lee Kadrich’s association career began just weeks after AIA founders created the association to advocate free and fair trade. With import restraints on Japanese nameplates already imposed, Kadrich’s first act was to oppose domestic content legislation that could permanently close the U.S. market. A former legislative assistant, he frequently testified in the two-year battle to thwart protectionism. He helped shape U.S.-Japan trade policy as a government advisor, including as U.S. Auto Parts Advisory Committee Chairman, and advised at the Geneva talks culminating with the 1994 U.S.-Japan Automotive Trade Agreement.
As the Heavy Duty Distribution Association’s executive director, Kadrich helped establish Heavy Duty Aftermarket Week, and developed the Commercial Vehicle Task Force, to galvanize industry groups behind Right to Repair. Named AIA executive director when AIA joined AAIA in 2002, he focused on AIA events at AAPEX, government affairs, online certification testing, website development and membership. Kadrich retired this year as AAIA vice president, government affairs & trade.
AIA has set aside the day as a day of appreciation for Kadrich. In a presentation to be held at the AIA booth at 1 p.m., AIA Board Chairman Steve Bearden will present Kadrich with a special award in a short ceremony in recognition of his remarkable service to the AIA segment and the industry.
AIA Young Executive of the Year: Brian Griffin III, Interamerican Motor Corp. (IMC)
Brian Griffin’s career in the aftermarket started at 10 years old when he helped his father, Brian Griffin II, assemble new clutch kits in their garage. Griffin worked at ARI in 2001-’04 as the company’s redistributed product manager, and then was hired on at IMC as a product manager, soon becoming responsible for managing the entire catalog. He now holds the position of director of product and category management.
Initially, Griffin’s main goal was converting the IMC catalog from a proprietary, home-grown catalog structure to (at the time) the industry standard Legacy format. Working with the people at SGI, and rallying the entire product management department, the Talking Pictures project went live in October 2006.
Becoming compliant with industry data standards gave IMC the ability to market their catalog and trade with other data partners, the missing key to IMC’s growth strategy. Very soon Griffin was leading the charge to convert the IMC Legacy catalog to ACES as well as revamping the entire application structure. Thanks to his hard work and diligence IMC now catalogs entirely in an ACES native environment. Griffin also is the vice president of the National Catalog Manager’s Association (NCMA).
