Our MAC Advisors
George Russell
George Russell started with International Harvester in 1975 , then worked for Case and later CNH Industrial where he held executive and global positions in both Ag and Construction Equipment in product development, strategy and sales & marketing. He left CNH in 2006 as VP, Case CE Europe, Africa, Middle East to start working directly with dealers. He leads several dealer best practice groups in Ag and CE as well as leading workshops for OEMs and AED programs such as “Professional Sales Management”, “Branch Management”, “Parts & Service Profitability””, and “Financial Leadership and Growth”. He writes a regular dealer business improvement column for Farm Equipment magazine and co-authors the annual ‘Big Dealer’ report for Ag Equipment Intelligence as part of his focus on growing & consolidating dealerships. He is a founding member of Machinery Advisors Consortium.
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Focus Areas
Sales, , Rental, Service & Parts Management, Peer Group Facilitation, Strategy Development, Mergers & Acquisition (Valuations, Negotiation, Integration), Global Expansion & Market Entry
Contact
VisTion Advisory LLC
35 Cherry St., #901
Burlington, VT 05401
847-219-7252 George.Russell@MachineryAdvisors.org
Bill Mayes
Bill has a breadth of experience with both OEM and retail experience, starting with 25 years with John Deere. Bill left John Deere to accept a position as Director of Product Support for Case Construction. He subsequently held positions with CNH as Worldwide Director of Service Marketing and Sales Director, New Holland & Kobelco. Bill left CNH to join MachineryLink, a start-up rental company, where he was VP, Fleet Management and Field Operations. His experience with MachineryLink provides a unique dealership relevant experience, because he was responsible for availability and operating cost of world's largest fleet of rental combines. In addition, he managed all customer facing support activities including 24/7 live support hotline, a customer satisfaction process, and he created a flexible staffing model to support MachineryLink combines with local talent throughout the U.S. and Canada on an as-needed basis.
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Bill divides his time between his residences in Costa Rica and Las Vegas and can deliver programs in both English and Spanish.
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Focus Areas
Coaching and training in Parts and Service Management, Parts and Service Sales Representatives – Program development and training, Sales Management and Selling Skills
Contact
Mayes & Calero, LLC
U.S. (913) 579-5188
Costa Rica (506) 8465-8148
John Cronheimer
John Cronheimer is a consultant based in St Thomas, Ontario and has 40 plus years’ experience with Agricultural and Construction Equipment, in both OEM and Dealership positions which include Parts, Service and Wholegoods Product Marketing. He has managed every department of a dealerships which provides knowledge, credibility and experience in consulting to OEM’s and dealerships throughout North America, with a focus on Aftermarket Sales.
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Focus Areas
Sales Management (Wholegoods, Aftersales), Service & Parts Management, Selling Skills
Bill Hoeg
Bill’s 45 years in the AG and CE industry is driven by the passion, insight and expertise that creates success through innovation. He started with IH and has demonstrated success in territory sales management, effective Parts Training (31% average improvement of on-the-job performance), “Value-Added Selling” Commercial Training, turn around Product Management (increased product volumes and customer satisfaction) and customer needs driven New Technology application. His experience also extends into other small businesses where people, processes and business systems are critical.
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Focus Areas
Service and Parts Management; Event Planning; Selling Skills; Store Retail, Merchandizing & Marketing; Technology and Process Implementation
Contact
WMH Consulting
14700 W. Fleetwood Lane
New Berlin, WI 53151
262-227-0759
Larry Cole
Larry’s 30+ years of dealership and manufacturers experience in the farm and construction equipment industry provides him the ability to understand the trials and tribulation of the industry from the perspective of the manufacturer and the dealer. His passion is to utilize his experiences to help others understand the industry, their roles and responsibilities, and what it takes to improve their business and/or department. The past 5+years have been working with dealerships and manufacturers in sales training, parts and service management training. For the past 15 years have been working with the extension service at Texas A&M.
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Focus Areas
Sales Management (Wholegoods, Aftersales), Service & Parts Management
Contact
Cole Enterprises
525 Dance Drive
West Columbia TX 77486
(979) 482-2004
Daniel Surprenant
Since 1988, Daniel has consulted to automotive and capital goods dealers. He founded his own company in 1999 after progressive dealership experience as Service Mgr & General Mgr. He translates into French and delivers high quality training for automotive OEMs and CNH Industrial in Quebec as well as in English. He is equally skilled in the classroom and at a dealership.
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Focus Areas
Service & Parts Mgmt., Selling Skills, Sales Management, Customer Satisfaction processes, Business Planning
Speaks French & English
Contact
Formation Future, Inc.
C.P. 1000
Saint-Donat-de-Montcalm
QUÉBEC J0T 2C0
514 386-3597
Michelle Currie
As Co-Owner of Currie Management Consultants, Inc., Michelle developed and delivers the year long Leadership Development curriculum for dealership managers which includes executive coaching and operations. She founded Life Guidance Associates, holds an MA in Psychology and authored the book “Boom Life” about work / life balance.
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Focus Areas
Leadership Development, Executive Coaching, Peer Group Facilitation, and Aftermarket Management Training
Contact
Currie Management Consultants, Inc.
102 Shore Drive, Suite 100
Worcester, MA 01605
508-752-9229 Mcurrie@CurrieManagement.com
Bob Currie
Bob is founder of Currie Management Consultants, Inc. and has over 40 year’s experience assisting OEMs and dealer in capital goods to improve distribution and performance. Some dealerships in the 25 Best Practice groups he started are in their 3rd generation. His leading edge dealership management approach can be seen in the books: Achieving Profit Potential Series – Service Workbook and Fleet Management. His broad vision and understanding extends internationally with clients in Europe, Asia and South America.
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Focus Areas
Enterprise Results, Strategic Planning, Dealerization, Executive Coaching, and Mergers and Acquisitions
Contact
Currie Management Consultants, Inc.
102 Shore Drive, Suite 100
Worcester, MA 01605
508-752-9229 RPCurrie@CurrieManagement.com
Robin Currie
Robin is Director of The Currie Training Center where she leverages her knowledge of distribution practices in several capital goods industries with her passion for leadership development. In addition to her studies in retail management, she understands the dealership retail experience through her support and facilitation of several Best Practices Groups. She is certified to administer the Myers-Brigs Type indicator and sparks discussion about personal development in her daily leadership blog, the Currie Circadian. She teaches the elements of Servant Leadership that complements her first book, Pray Without Ceasing.
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Focus Areas
Leadership Development, Personal Evaluations & Growth, Best Practices for Dealership Executives, Women of Distribution
Contact
Currie Management Consultants, Inc.
102 Shore Drive, Suite 100
Worcester, MA 01605
508-752-9229 Robin@CurrieManagement.com
Jim Henderson
Jim is an entrepreneur who has started and successfully sold two information technology companies. He leads the Exemplary Group, which through Best Practice Groups and direct consulting practices, provides benchmarking best practices and tools for Dealerships, Manufacturer Reps & Value-Added Retailers. As a member of MAC and direct work with dealers, he advises farm and construction dealers in Best Practice Groups on the application of technology, bot for internal business management and IT processes and externally for Precision Farming & Machine Control.
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Focus Areas
Teaching dealers to achieve profitability from selling & supporting smart machines, Leaverging the power of benchmarking & models to drive performance improvement, Applying technology & data to re-engineer dealership processes, Providing personal testimony on how & why business must adapt to change
Contact
Exemplary Group
41 Potter Hill Road
Grafton, MA 01519
774-545-5184
Erik Thompson
Erik is founder of Thompson Leadership Development, Inc. who assist business-owning families and non-family managers in their efforts to:
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Address Relationship Log-jams,
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Keep family relationships as healthy as possible,
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Plan leadership succession,
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Assist the founder in personal life planning “beyond the business”,
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Openly and candidly take on important yet sensitive issues,
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Help emerging leaders develop high-caliber leadership skills.
He is a Licensed Psychologist-Masters whose professional discipline for the past 20 years has been applying the science of systems thinking to leadership, especially in family businesses.
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Focus Areas
Executive coaching and training to CEO’s, Presidents, and their leadership teams, Helping top managers think more clearly about leading
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Contact
ParkWood Advisors LLC
(847) 922-0771
Marianne Wood
Marianne is an experienced business consultant with a strong background in information technology, management consulting, project management, and communication strategies. Marianne provides consulting and advisory services to small businesses and medium to large corporations across multiple industries to manage their program/project portfolio; improve their business processes; analyze and synthesize data for management reporting; research, analyze, and implement software and hardware products; and design and develop communication products for online, presentation and printing purposes. Previously, she was a senior manager with Ernst & Young LLP, where she designed and managed the development of online knowledge-base, systems development methodology and software products for clients and internal technical support staff.
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Focus Areas
Project management, process improvement, communication strategy, information technology, implementation, knowledge management, publishing.
Jennifer Short
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Jennifer began working in the automobile dealership industry in 2002 in the areas of Warranty Administration and Business Development Center installation and training. In 2005, Jennifer joined MBA Dealer Services and began performing the administrative duties of the fixed operations consulting business. During that time she helped create and install then Chrysler LLC’s Service and Parts Manager Performance Groups (now FCA 20 Groups). To this date, she continues to lead the administration of these 20 Groups on behalf of FCA. In 2014, Jen began a similar task with Case New Holland with the creation and installation of the Service and Parts Manager Performance Dealer Groups which led to her being introduced to Machinery Advisory Consortium. She now administers the Dealer Groups for both Case CE, Case IH, New Holland, and a mixed brands group.
In 2012, Jennifer became managing partner and CIO and in 2018, Jennifer became the CEO of MBA Dealer Services.
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Focus Areas
Warranty administration, business development, dealer group administration, financial administration
Rob Park
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Rob helped found MAC in 2015 and, despite his passing in May 2016, his spirit, memory and example
continue to sustain MAC members.
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Rob had 25 plus years experience in the equipment industry both at the OEM level and at dealerships. It’s the dealership experience though that helped him relate well to dealers and counseled them to step back and look at their operations to examine key areas for financial, operational, and people resource development. His high energy and passion for the business kept attendees engaged and challenged to affect positive change once the training concludes. Rob was one of the first members to be invited into the Machinery Advisors Consortium.
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Focus Areas
Selling Skills, Sales Management (Wholegoods, Aftersales), Leadership Development, Executive Coaching, Database Architecture & Development
