Wisco Weekl‪y‬ Dennis Wisco

Kelley LaFontaine is the Vice President of LaFontaine Automotive Group, and an active investor in her community. Whether it is supporting cancer research to helping small businesses, Kelley shares her recipe on why it's important to be actively involved in your community and how she does it.
 
About Kelley LaFontaine Kelley oversees the day-to-day operations of the LaFontaine Automotive Group consisting of 41 different franchises, 22 retail locations and seven body shops across Southeast Michigan. She directs all of the organization's grassroots marketing initiatives and launched the LaFontaine Business to Business department that now thrives across the entire automotive group. Kelley's out-of-the-box thinking led to the opening of the Lady La Boutique and Oh la la Cafe inside the LaFontaine's flagship Cadillac, Buick, GMC dealership in Highland, Michigan.
With heart for giving back that reaches far beyond her own backyard, Kelley sits on the board of three non-profit organizations including U CAN-CER VIVE Foundation, Angels of Hope and Project 1. She is also involved in the Automotive Women's Alliance and Inforum Automotive Next. Kelley is the past chairperson of the Huron Valley Optimist Childhood Cancer Campaign as well as the past Preident of the Clarkston Area Chamber of Commerce. She has been a humble recipient of many remarkable awards including the 2011 Leukemia Lymphona Society National Woman of the Year, 2012 Civic Leadership Award, the 2012 D-Business 30 in Their 30's honor, Twilight Civic Leadership Award in 2012, winner of RARE Everyday Heroes Award in 2012, 2014 Oakland County Executive Elite 40 Under 40 award, and the Angels of Hope Chairman's Award in 2015 and 2016. Kelley is also proud to have received the nationally recognized Dealer of the Year award, alongside her family, at LaFontaine Cadillac Buick GMC of Highland for eight years running.
 
 
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The Social Entrepreneur and her $100 Million Bond
A Guide for Daughters in Automotive
The Correlation of Homes Sales to Auto Sales
Business Insights and Strategies from NADA 2021
COVID Mini Series: Upward Social Mobility
Vanlife Mini Series: Home Is Where You Park It

 
Notes  |  Resources

Kelley LaFontaine  |  LaFontaine Automotive Group
U CAN-CER VIVE Foundation  |  Web
Intro song  |  WEARETHEGOOOD |  Spotify

 
***** Wisco Weekly *****
Founder and Host, Dennis Wisco, takes his Business Class listeners through the culture and society of automotive business. Subscribe and follow the money to know where you can #maketheinvestment.
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To end the month of February, host Dennis Wisco shares some insight into the latest transportation company to declare their intentions to go public via a Special Purpose Acqusition Company (SPAC). Xos Trucks is a leading commercial electric vehicle OEM and they will be merging with NextGen Acquisition Corp (Nasdaq: NGAC) in quarter two of 20201.
 
Notes  |  Resources

Xos Trucks  |  SPAC Announcement
Intro song  |  Brooke Alexx  |  Spotify

 
***** Wisco Weekly *****
Founder and Host, Dennis Wisco, takes his Business Class listeners through the culture and society of automotive business. Subscribe and follow the money to know where you can #maketheinvestment.
✌(-‿-)✌

Senior Vice President of Operations at vAuto, Randy Kobat guests on episode #163 of Wisco Weekly which recaps and analyzes NADA 2021. Randy and Dennis weigh in on the franchise business model versus franchise law, discuss if business schools are meeting the needs of the automotive industry, and Randy shares where he would invest his money that would be most meaningful to him.
About Randy Kobat Randy Kobat is vice president of operations and inventory management solutions for vAuto, Rebates & Incentives, KBB ICO and related products. In this role, Randy oversees all aspects of operations and performance for these companies and segments of Cox Automotive, helping them meet their respective goals for growth, product development and integration, and customer and employee satisfaction. Randy brings a unique blend of executive leadership expertise to vAuto that includes long-term planning, marketing, mergers and acquisitions, operations, sales management, and strategy development.
Prior to joining Cox Automotive, Randy successfully held a variety of top-level leadership positions for automotive-related companies including Service Repair Solutions Inc., Trilogy Enterprises and CDK. Randy has also served as a business leadership lecturer for the Smeal College of Business at Pennsylvania State University, the Wisconsin School of Business at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and other business schools.
Randy earned a Bachelor of Science in chemistry from Northern Illinois University and an MBA from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
 
Related Episodes

The Social Entrepreneur and her $100 Million Bond
Cash is King, or Cash for Clunkers
The Correlation of Homes Sales to Auto Sales
COVID Mini Series: Upward Social Mobility
Vanlife Mini Series: Home Is Where You Park It

 
Notes  |  Resources

Randy Kobat  |  Twitter  |  LinkedIn
vAuto Podcast  |  Web
Intro song  |  Ben Bostick  |  Spotify

 
***** Wisco Weekly *****
Founder and Host, Dennis Wisco, takes his Business Class listeners through the culture and society of automotive business. Subscribe and follow the money to know where you can #maketheinvestment.
✌(-‿-)✌
 

At this moment, Michelle Corson, Founder and CEO of On The Road Companies, has a current initiative to raise capital for her existing operation. The initiative is called The Sustainability Bond Issuance Framework and seeks to greenify On The Road Companies by raising $100 million through the bond market. Tune in to hear this social entrepreneur on how she has built her company brick by brick.
About Michelle After a successful career in finance and development, Michelle founded Champion Impact Capital in 2011 to encourage impact investing in Texas, bringing capital markets dollars to scale solutions for community needs.
Champion has led ideation on projects using various creative financial tools such as social impact bonds, green bonds, social purpose private equity funds, ESG investments, and social purpose REITs.
Michelle founded On the Road Companies to empower working Americans to have the opportunity to take the best jobs available to them with dignity and create a prosperity movement that will propel our country and its citizens to achieve their dreams and live their best lives.
 
Related Episodes

The Correlation with Home Sales to Auto Sales
Randal O’Toole  |  Cato Institute
The ETF Horserace
Upward Social Mobility (*Mini Series)
Home Is Where You Park It (Vanlife Mini Series)

 
Notes  |  Resources

Michelle Corson  |  LinkedIn  |  On The Road Companies
Sustainability Bond Issuance Framework  |  PDF
Intro song  |  Benj Heard  |  Spotify

 
***** Wisco Weekly *****
Founder and Host, Dennis Wisco, takes his Business Class listeners through the culture and society of automotive business. Subscribe and follow the money to know where you can #maketheinvestment.
✌(-‿-)✌
 

A prior economist at Realtor.com and currently serving as the Chief Economist at Cox Automotive, Jonathan Smoke shares some valuable macro trends that we can follow as a result of the booming housing market. Tune in to hear about the democratization of car ownership versus home ownership, credit worthiness, interest rates and inflation, and the latest index developed by Jonathan’s team, the Vehicle Affordability Index.
About Jonathan Smoke leads Cox Automotive’s economic industry insights office. This office is tasked with leveraging data to expand Cox Automotive’s deep expertise in all aspects of the automotive industry. His focus is to connect the data from all of the company’s businesses and platforms and relate to economic, industry and demographic trends.
Prior to joining Cox Automotive, Smoke served as Realtor.com’s chief economist. Before that, he was the chief economist for Hanley Wood, a media and market intelligence company, and also served in a variety of roles at Beazer Homes, including senior vice president of strategy and innovation.
Smoke was named one of “the 21 most interesting people in real estate” by Inman News and was the only economist to make the list in 2016. He is quoted in national news outlets and has published more than 150 original articles. Smoke blogs regularly and tweets using Twitter handle @SmokeonCars to share his industry insights.
Smoke holds a bachelor’s degree in economics and religious studies from Rhodes College and a master’s degree in business from The University of Texas at Austin.
 
Related Episodes

Cash is King, or Cash for Clunkers
The ETF Horserace
John Kett of IAA, Inc.
Home Is Where You Park It (Vanlife Mini Series)

 
Notes  |  Resources

Jonathan Smoke  |  Twitter  |  Spotify
Cox Automotive  |  Vehicle Affordability Index
Intro song  |  Casey Parnell  |  Web

 
***** Wisco Weekly *****
Founder and Host, Dennis Wisco, takes his Business Class listeners through the culture and society of automotive business. Subscribe and follow the money to know where you can #maketheinvestment.
✌(-‿-)✌
 

Originally published in February of 2019, episode #160 features Brian Allan, the Senior Vice President at HyreCar (HYRE). With the tumultuous year of 2020, it’s good to look back on HyreCar’s share price’s rise, fall, and rise again dating back to this episode.
Subscribe to Wisco Weekly for more automotive companies that publicly trade.
 
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