Earlier this month, VinSolutions hosted a Town Hall meeting to kick off the year, align team members on the company goals and rally behind the vision for the future. In addition to recognizing the 2018 successes of the company, the Town Hall meeting also recognized the individual successes of our hardworking team members. We caught up with this year’s Team Members of the Year to hear more about their year and what this recognition means to them.
Congrats to this year’s honorees!
Team Member of the Year 
Kevin McCarthy, Senior Performance Manager
Proudest 2018 Accomplishment: I was asked to take over an account that was testing VinSolutions Connect CRM in one of their stores. At the time, they were reluctant to add Connect CRM at their other seven stores, but as we worked with the DP, GM and managers, they saw value in using our solutions. In December, they decided to install Connect CRM in the other seven stores.
What This Recognition Means: Being a remote employee (I live in Michigan), it’s easy to underestimate or not see how your individual contribution impacts the organization. This award means that those efforts don’t go unnoticed.
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Jay Smith, Technical Client Service Representative I
What This Recognition Means: The volunteer work that I do to help the homeless, elderly, veterans, single parents and others brings me happiness and a comfort to my soul. To be recognized by my company and peers for this work is amazing.
Love for VinSolutions: The desire from everyone around you, including management and supervisory staff, to help you succeed and grow with VinSolutions is amazing. This company promotes growth, including mentoring and training. VinSolutions takes care of its team members and makes sure we know how important we are to the company. This is not something found in other companies.
Engineering Team Members of the Year
Jason Jones, Principal Software Engineer
John Passarelli, Senior Manager of Database Administration
What This Recognition Means: VinSolutions recognizes and rewards hard work.
Love for VinSolutions: What I like most about working at VinSolutions is solving big problems.
Managed Services Team Member of the Year
Jessica Tomlin, Senior Lead Generator
What This Recognition Means: This means a lot to me. I am truly grateful for this opportunity. Hard work does pay off.
Love for VinSolutions: I love the fact that VinSolutions care about its employees and takes care of us. The atmosphere is amazing. I am truly grateful to work for such a great company.
Marketing, Finance and People Strategies Team Member of the Year
Matt Barker, Billing Manager
Onboarding Team Members of the Year 
Brandon Ryan, Multi Product Trainer
Proudest 2018 Accomplishment: I’m proud to have had the opportunity to learn about and train on another product like Xtime.
What This Recognition Means: It encourages me to achieve consistently high performance.
Trever Sifuentes, Senior Client Service Quality Rep
What This Recognition Means: This recognition means a lot. It shows that the hard work I have put in the last 12 months isn’t going unnoticed and that I am appreciated by my peers. I couldn’t have won it without them and my managers.
Love for VinSolutions: I really enjoy everything about working at Vin. Coming from retail, the atmosphere of a software company was an adjustment that I very much enjoyed. I also very much enjoy competing in Corporate Challenge. I love the direction that we are headed in and I look forward to my future with VinSolutions and Cox Automotive.
Operations Team Members of the Year 
Michael Coghlan, Lead Desk Technician
Proudest Accomplishment of 2018: This last year was full of great opportunities. I got to complete the Aspiring Leaders program, implement a number of projects within Support, and train a number of new Lead Techs to grow the team I’m a part of. 2018 was all around a great year.
What This Recognition Means: Winning this award has been incredible. This is the first award I’ve received where I’ve gotten a “congratulations” from random people in the elevator. Earning this award is pushing me to work even harder to ensure I keep up my momentum in making a difference in my department.
Richard White III, Lead Desk Technician
Proudest Accomplishment of 2018: Personally, I’m proud to have established the monthly Board Game Night in the office. Professionally, I’m most proud to have graduated from our Aspiring Leaders program.
Love for VinSolutions: I love being able to work in software and have a startup culture while also having established company benefits. VinSolutions really is a great company.
Performance Management Team Member of the Year 
Megan Barto, Performance Manager
Proudest Accomplishment of 2018: This year, I had multiple dealers tell me they had year-over-year increases in volume and revenue. This can, in large part, be attributed directly to the suite of tools VinSolutions offers and specifically the Performance Management component of the software.
Love for VinSolutions: I’ve always had a passion for processes and accountability. When I was at the dealership, I was only able to influence change on a small level. At VinSolutions, I am able to influence change across a broader range of dealerships across the country and thus help multiple rooftops drive revenue to the bottom line.
Product Team Member of the Year 
Chad Agler, Product Director
What This Recognition Means: I’m humbled that my peers allow me to be involved in their work and that they respect my input. Even more, I’m humbled that they have found my input valuable enough to act on it and partner together to change Cox Automotive Retail Solutions for the better. I love what I do, the people I work with and the clients we serve. I’m so grateful for the recognition, especially coming from such accomplished, professional people.
Love for VinSolutions: The thing I like most about working at VinSolutions is the passion. Everything we do has the right motives, ideas and passion behind it, with the right passionate people doing the work and, most importantly, the right passion from the leaders supporting the work. I couldn’t be more excited about where we are and where we are going. Together we are going to crush it!
Sales Team Member of the Year 
Joshua Lehman, Senior Product Consultant
What This Recognition Means: This recognition means everything. It means that I made the right decision in my career path and that I’m aligned with the right people and leadership that I fully believe in.
Love for VinSolutions: I’m very thankful to Michelle Hoppe, Sam Passer, Mo Zahabi, Chase Abbott, Stephen Keen and Robert DeGeorge as they were very crucial in my development at this company. They saw my potential and worked to guide me to it.