I grew up in Colebrook, NH, with a population of 2,000. I met my wife, Elaine of 51 years at my first full-time job, working the “stain line” at the Ethan Allen furniture plant in town. It didn’t take long to realize this would not be a lifelong pursuit. I applied for a sales job at the local Lewis Ford dealership. As fate would have it, the owner passed away and I approached a banker friend with an idea to buy it and take a chance. From there, I purchased and sold more dealerships in New Hampshire forming what is currently known as Berlin City Dealerships with locations in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont.

When the time came to sell Berlin City, I created one of the nation’s first ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plan). When I sold the dealership, our employees collected half of the windfall. I rented out an entire luxury hotel in Whitefield, NH, and shared payments with all of our workers. A true life-changing moment. The Berlin City experience truly formed my management style and business approach.

I initially hung up my sales pitch and went to Florida, but was soon pitched on a Mercedes store in 2004 in South Florida. In 2006/2007, I was approached by South Florida’s Wayne Huizenga, owner of the Miami Dolphins and nationally-known businessman. Huizenga felt the best way to compete with me was to buy me out. I sold my Florida stores setting another career milestone for the industry, closing the deal with a $100M sale to the Dolphins owner, listed as the largest ever sale in automotive history. The buyer, Auto Nation.

About a year after selling, my son, Chris, and I decided it was time to get back in. We partnered up and started buying stores again. We began in Delaware with 2 Chevrolet dealerships and then we got a call from Ernie Boch, a major dealer in the Boston area. Ernie wanted to sell after his father passed away, so he hired us to find the right buyer. In 2011, after a financial analysis of what the stores could do, I approached Ernie with an offer to buy the dealerships myself moving us to Massachusetts where the company is now based out of. This kicked off a buying spree of epic proportions. We’ve bought dealerships all around the region and now have 30 stores in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and more to come soon.