Auto Remarketing Publisher Emeritus Ron Smith Earns
2014 NAAA Marie Hingst Exhibitor of the Year Award
BOSTON, Mass. – Ron Smith, CEO of S&A Cherokee Publishing and Publisher Emeritus of Auto Remarketing, earned the National Auto Auction Association 2014 Marie Hingst Exhibitor of the Year Award during the 66th Annual NAAA Convention & Exposition here this month.
Smith has long been a highly visible fixture in the remarketing industry as publisher of Auto Remarketing, the national trade publication dedicated to providing automobile dealers and industry vendors with the most up-to-date and vital information about the wholesale and retail used vehicle marketplaces.
Smith has worked in publishing and communications for more
than 40 years. He started S&A Cherokee, parent company to Auto Remarketing, The National Remarketing Conference, and Used Car Week in 1982 and has operated the company continually
since that time.
Today, the burgeoning operation lists three divisions: Cherokee Media Group, which owns and operates print and digital media as well annual industry conferences and events; S&A Communications, a full-service, diversified marketing and public relations firm; and CarMark, which owns and operates CarMark Certified Pre-Owned and CarMark Auto Finance.
“This award is such a great honor, and Ron is so deserving,” said Bill Zadeits, president of Cherokee Automotive Group and publisher of Auto Remarketing and SubPrime Auto Finance News. “He’s been involved with the fine people at NAAA for nearly 30 years, and Auto Remarketing, with Ron at the lead, has been supporting the convention as an exhibitor since the early ’90s.”
“ The NAAA Convention has always been a ‘must-attend’ for Auto Remarketing team and Ron has been the one to spearhead our investment in time, effort, resources, energy and our preparation and planning for the convention. He believes strongly in the people and companies that make up the NAAA membership and has always been an advocate.”
Frank Hackett, chief executive officer, said the association was pleased to honor Smith for his decades of support to the auction association and the remarketing industry as a whole.
“Ron has been a supporter of the association in providing our industry with news, information, and analysis as well as excellent profiles of many of our industry’s leaders,” Hackett said. “Auto Remarketing never misses one of our events.”
A lifelong entrepreneur, Smith has served successful tenures as a newspaper reporter and editor, magazine publisher and editor, association executive and public relations counselor. He began his career while in high school by working as a writer for a newspaper.
He worked his way through college as an employee of various newspapers, and he completed college while working at a newspaper full-time. He is a member of the Public Relations Society of America since 1976 and was accredited in 1981. He was recognized in 2011 by the NAAA with the prestigious Warren Young Fellow.
The Exhibitor of the Year Award named in honor of its first recipient in 2006, Marie Hingst, in recognition of her years of dedication and commitment to NAAA, the award is presented each year at the NAAA annual convention to an exhibitor who displays a similar degree of devotion.
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