Lee Amaradio Jr
Writer Lee Amaradio Jr. is the president and founder of Faith Quality Auto Body Inc. in Murrieta, Calif. His 32,000-square-foot state-of-the-art facility employs 65 full-time employees and does $7 million in gross sales. In business since 1979, Lee attributes his success to having a great team of quality people supporting him. Lee says that he “sees the handwriting on the wall” and believes that “now is the time for us to reclaim our industry, before it’s too late.”
Mike Anderson
Mike Anderson is the former owner of
Wagonwork Collision Centers in Alexandria, Va., and current owner of CollisionAdvice.com, a full-service collision consulting company. He can be reached at mike@collisionadvice.com or (301) 535-3333.
Paul Bailey
Writer Paul Bailey, a contributing editor to BodyShop Business, has been a collision repairman for more than 20 years and is an avid photographer, writer and artist. Currently at work on what he expects to be his first book, Bailey resides in Florida with his wife, Cathy.
Charlie Barone
Writer Charlie Barone has been working in and around the body shop business for the last 35 years, having owned and managed several collision repair shops. He's an ASE Master Certified technician, a licensed damage appraiser and has been writing technical, management and opinion pieces since 1993.
Andy Batchelor
Andy Batchelor is the former owner of Andy’s Auto Body of Alton, Inc. in Alton, Ill., and had been a self-employed automotive repair owner for more than 30 years. He’s a certified Automotive Specialist with training from Rankin Technical School, has achieved the I-CAR Platinum Individual designation, has Master Collision Certification from ASE and a degree in Business Administration from Lewis and Clark Community College. Batchelor also serves as I-CAR’s Southern Illinois Training Chairman. Batchelor and his wife, Nancy, reside in Alton, Ill., and have two children, both married and living in the suburbs of Chicago.
Scott Biggs
Writer Scott Biggs is currently the CEO and founder of Assured Performance Network, a shop owned co-op founded in 2004 representing approximately 5,000 independently owned collision repair businesses in the United States. Biggs is the former producer and host of BodyShop Video Magazine and president of Business Development Group. He has received many awards and recognitions including Industry Achievement, Hall of Eagles, Most Influential Leader of the 20th Century and more. He has toured thousands of shops and delivered more than 850,000 hours of management education to the collision industry. His organizations have provided marketing, technology, management services and consulting to thousands of body shops worldwide since 1984.
Mark Clark
Writer Mark Clark, owner of Professional PBE Systems in Waterloo, Iowa, is a well-known industry speaker and consultant. He's been a contributing editor to BodyShop Business since 1988.
Mark J. Claypool
Mark Claypool is the president and CEO of Mentors At Work. He has nearly 25 years of experience in the fields of workforce development, business education partnerships and apprenticeships. Claypool is the former executive director of the I-CAR Education Foundation and the National Auto Body
Council (NABC). He was the director of development for killsUSA and still serves, on a volunteer basis, as the TeamUSA Leader for the WorldSkills Championships.
Keith Combs
Contributing Editor Keith Combs is the body shop manager at Bill Roberts Chevrolet, where he’s been employed for more than 25 years. He was named GM/ASE Master Collision Repair/Refinish Technician of the year in 2000 and was one of the first to achieve GM’s World Class Technician status in 2002.
E. L. Eversman, J.D.
Writer E. L. Eversman is the General Counsel for Vehicle Information Services, Inc., award-winning author of the AutoMuse® blog and a frequent speaker and author on automotive consumer and legal issues.
Frank Hauf
Writer Frank Hauf began his career in the auto body industry in a combo shop more than 20 years ago in the northern suburbs of Chicago. For the last eight years, he’s been living on the Alabama Gulf Coast and working as a painter.
Phil Mosley
Writer Phil Mosley is the general manager of two Mercedes-Benz Collision Centers, one in West Chester, Ohio, the other in Ameila, Ohio. In the industry since 1978, Mosley has done it all: tech, manager, insurance appraiser, physical damage manager and shop owner.
Hank Nunn
Writer Hank Nunn has been involved in the collision repair industry for 30 years as an adjuster, shop owner, technician and consultant.Nunn is president of H W Nunn & Associates, a collision industry consulting firm. He’s also the lead facilitator as well as sales and marketing manager for DuPont Performance Coatings SMART Management Seminar Series.
Michael Quinn
Michael Quinn is co-founder and CEO of 911 Collision Centers & Autoglass. From a start-up in August 1998, 911 Collision Centers & Autoglass has grown to five locations in Tucson, Ariz., and two locations in Las Vegas. 911
Collision Centers & Autoglass received the National Auto Body Council’s “Pride Award” for its commitment to community service. The company was also a runner-up in the Better Business Bureau’s International “Ethics in Business” award and AAA’s “Top Shop” awards for service and repair
excellence. In 2006, it was given the DuPont Joe Jackson award for community service.
James Rossman
Writer James Rossman, 37, has been in the autobody industry since 1989 and has been employed as a painter’s helper, a painter, production manager, a wholesale area manager for a paint company, a wholesaler rep for a local jobber and a production manager. These days, he’s the business development manager for Vision Collision in the Lansing, Mich., area. Rossman’s been involved in nearly every facet of the industry, short of doing his own frame work. (“Although I think as a manager, I was actually framed for a couple of things,” says Rossman.) He enjoys spending time with his family and restoring his 1980 Oldsmobile Cutlass.
John Shortell
Writer John Shortell is body shop manager at Secor’s Collision Technology in New London, Conn. He’s been in the collision industry for more than 20 years and has developed computer software for body shop scheduling called BodyShop Schedule Pro, for subletting towing called Tow Bill Helper and for printing estimates in dollars called Dollars & Sense. For more information, visit www.bodyshopsolutions.com.
John Sweigart
Contributing editor John Sweigart is a principal partner in The Body Shop @ (www.thebodyshop-at.com). Along with his business partner, Brad Sullivan, they own and operate collision repair shops inside new car dealerships, as well as consult to the industry. Sweigart has spent 21 years in the collision repair industry and has done everything from being an independent shop owner to a dealership shop manager to a store, regional and, ultimately, national director of operations for Sterling Collision Centers. Both Sweigart and Sullivan have worked closely with former manufacturing executives from Federal-Mogul, Morton Thiokol and Pratt & Whitney in understanding and implementing the principles of the Toyota Production System.
Nathan Tarr
Writer Nathan Tarr has been working in and around the collision repair industry for the last 12 years and admits to being “thoroughly addicted to auto body work. It's my hobby as well as my job.” Sikkens certified and PPG certified, Tarr has been working as a painter for the past five years. Tarr is also a member of the Coalition for Collision Repair Excellence (CCRE) because “it was one of the only ways I could find for a technician to help make a difference.” He has been married for nine years to his lovely wife Wency — “I've had my eye on her ever since she moved up the street from me in the seventh grade.” They have a 2-year-old son, Hank, who likes to hunt for worms in the backyard and hide the remote control.
Mike West
Writer Mike West, a contributing editor to BodyShop Business, retired and closed his shop in Seattle, Wash., on July 1, 2011, after more than 40 years in collision repair. The mayor of Tukwila declared that day “Mike West Day” to honor West for his 39 years as a businessman in the city. He is keeping active by restoring a 1933 Rockne Sedan Delivery and a 1934 Pierce-Arrow Rumble Seat Coupe. He plans to continue administering the I-CAR in-shop welding series in the Western Washington area.
Dave Williams
Writer David Williams produced award-winning show cars and high- quality collision repairs from his Ohio-based shop, Precision Collision, from 1977-1999. Williams was the first WreckCheck licensee to operate in a mobile capacity, primarily assisting attorneys in the states of Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia. Learn more about Williams and his work at www.SafeCollisionRepairs.com.
Bob Winfrey
Writer Bob Winfrey is owner of All Precision Collision Repair in Marshville, N.C.