Speaker Bios

2018 Speakers

Kyle Holt

Kyle Holt is the President of S/P2. Each year, S/P2 provides online training to more than 175,000 workers and students nationwide on industry-specific safety and pollution prevention, ethics, soft skills, and human resources topics, as well as an online workplace mentoring program for the automotive industry. S/P2 also provides S/P2 Careers – a resume database of tens of thousands of career tech students looking for career opportunities in their field of study. S/P2 serves the automotive service, collision repair, heavy-duty/diesel, welding, construction, cosmetology, and culinary trades. For more information, visit www.sp2.org.

 Chris Peace

Chris has been a GM technician, shop foreman and service manager before becoming an automotive instructor. He is currently ASE Master Certified in Automobile, Medium/Heavy Truck and a GM World Class technician. During his teaching career, he has taught General Automotive and Heavy Duty Truck classes and became the GJASEP coordinator before leaving the college. At the college, Chris also taught GM STC and ACDelco classes as part of his workload. His automotive experience and knowledge cover quite a few years.

Craig Van Batenburg

Craig Van Batenburg is the CEO of ACDC and a former repair shop owner. He is engaged full time in the understanding of the technology used in hybrid and electric cars. His 45 years of automotive experience serves him well. Driving a Nissan Leaf when he can and a Chevy Volt for longer trips these days, he also owns and drives HEVs from Ford, Honda and Toyota as well a Nissan and GM. With great passion, a keen wit and more experience that most, Craig can help you understand not only how but why these new electrified cars operate the way they do. Craig is in demand worldwide and travels often to help those seeking a simple explanation of a complicated subject.

David Patrick

David Patrick is a highly experienced auto technician, with over 35 years in the automotive industry. Having been an ASE Certified Technician since 1982, David achieved master auto certification status in 1988 and master medium/heavy truck certification by 1994. Now having taught many classes across the eastern United States, David has earned a position as an instructor for CARQUEST Technical Institute (CTI).

Danny Sanchez

Danny Sanchez is the CEO of Autoshop Solutions, Inc., the automotive industry’s leading Internet marketing agency. With over 25 years of automotive experience, Danny continues to develop winning marketing strategies that are being adopted by automotive businesses around the country. As a former shop owner himself, Danny uses his real world shop experience to bridge the gap between the automotive service and the marketing sides of the industry. Danny’s proven and practical approach to Internet marketing continues to lead the automotive industry into the 21st Century. His company, Autoshop Solutions, is a certified Google Partner and made the Inc. 5000 List of America’s Fastest Growing Companies three years in a row, as well as received the honor of Best Places to Work in the Raleigh-Durham market.

Jeff Bly

• 30 years experience as a Diagnostics & Electrical Repair Specialist
• Master ASE Certified Automobile Technician w/ L-1
• 11 years experience as an Automotive Technical Trainer
• Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Member since 2007
• National Automotive Service Task Force (NASTF) Committee Member
• Sponsoring Member of the International Auto Technician’s Network (iATN)

Edwin  Hazzard

Edwin Hazzard owns South East Mobile Tech in Charleston South Carolina, which is a mobile diagnostic and Programming service providing technical service to many automotive and body repair shops. He has 35 years experience in the Automotive industry and is ASE master certified in Automobile, Light  and Heavy Duty Trucks. He currently is an automotive trainer, board member of TST,(technician service training) member of the MDG,( Mobile Diagnostics Group), member of the Professional Tool and Equipment advisory board for Pten magazine, Committee member of Nastaf, and current beta tester for multiple tool companies . He is a technical writer for Motor Age magazine and Automotive Service Professional magazine as well. He is a sponsor of Iatn since 1997 and also a member of the Diagnostic Network.

Donny Seyfer

Donny is the Executive Officer for the National Automotive Service Task Force. His responsibilities include assisting automotive technicians and locksmiths with information necessary to repair vehicles. Donny is an ASE Master / L1 advanced diagnostic technician and C1 service consultant, and has been a participant writing test questions and working on passing score studies for ASE. He is a contributing editor to Babcox publications, and a has contributed to Autobody Repair News (ABRN), Motor Age, Aftermarket Business World and AutoInc. Magazine. He also co-authored an article on vehicle information for The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. As a technical and management instructor Donny has provided training for NAPA Autotech, Automotive Service Association, The Auto Alliance, WorldPac, MACSVISION, ATE, NACE, CARS and others.

Rick White

Rick White has been working in the automotive, software and coaching industries for greater than thirty years and is currently an AMI approved training instructor. He brings to the table a career’s worth of technical experience, twenty plus years of management experience and four years of fleet management experience. He owned and managed several successful automotive repair shops. Rick has worked as manager or consultant for several major companies such as AAA Northeast and GenesisFour Corporation and most recently founded One Eighty Business Solutions (180BIZ), a training and business coaching company tailored to specifically meet the needs of the independent Automotive Repair industry.

Jim Silverman

Jim Silverman is the Go-To guy at ATI and has a vast knowledge of market trends, industry updates and is constantly keeping up with what’s going on with other companies in the aftermarket side of the automotive industry. When speaking in front of groups, it doesn’t matter if it’s to shop owners, association groups, partner employees or in front of our ATI employees, Jim truly enjoys this industry and his passion and expertise shows through in the subjects he speaks about. With his varied experience in most aspects of the automotive industry, he is just as comfortable speaking in a corporate board room as he is with a group of shop owners or technicians – and all get the same respect. Jim is one of the rare individuals that has been successful in both the franchised and aftermarket sides of our industry and his broad knowledge covers the entire spectrum including service, parts, sales, accounting, management, training and consulting. Jim takes pride in helping shop owners improve their situations and values the relationships he’s built up over the years with shop owners and with the major service providers to the aftermarket industry.

Dirk Fuchs

Dirk Fuchs is the ZF Aftermarket Technical Training Manger for the United States and Canada. He has uniquely designed the training department to provide programs tailored to each audience, covering the full ZF product range of ZF transmissions, Lemförder chassis, SACHS shocks and clutches and TRW Corner Module components (friction, chassis, and suspension).Programs range from sales training to technical offerings covering diagnostics and manufacturer specific systems training.
Dirk started his career as a factory instructor, working with Volkswagen for 5 years. He then joined ZF, progressing from warranty management to technical training and held an integral role in the launch of the ProTech service concept for workshops in Europe. In his position now, he is responsible for the strategic direction and implementation of all technician and customer training across the market, including the future roll-out of ProTech in the US.

Amy Mattinat

Amy is the sole owner of her award winning independent sales & service facility in Vermont. Auto Craftsmen is ASE Blue Seal, AAA Approved & AskPatty.com Certified Female Friendly. She started working at Auto Craftsmen in 1994 as the bookkeeper, adding marketing to her job description, become the service advisor, then partner and she bought out her partner in 2009.  She now manages her business, writes a monthly car care newsletter, wrote the book “How to Buy a Great Used Car” and has taught many Women Car Care Clinics. She is very involved with the Auto Care Industry. She was the president of WiAC: Women in Auto Care for three years, is a consultant for ASE, is a member of SEMA Business Women Networking and was part of the 1957 Chevy Montage all female build that was unveiled at SEMA 2017

Carm Capriotto

Carm Capriotto is the founder and host of Remarkable Results Radio, the only podcast, or occasionally called ‘On Demand Audio’, that interviews today’s most inspiring and successful automotive aftermarket professionals. He has been involved in the industry all his life and calls on 35 plus years of experience in the aftermarket to engage guests to create great conversational podcast and Town Hall Academy. There is not much he has not done on the distribution side which includes 20 years as business owner and 15 years in an executive position with a WD with stores. His roles have included bringing training (both technical and management), marketing, sales programs and quality operational and service improvements to support the service professional.

Peter Orlando

Peter L. Orlando has been in the automotive industry for 40 years. He is an ASE Certified Master Automobile Technician (CMAT) A1-A8 with additional certification in A9, C1, G1, L1, L2, T6, and T8. His current position is Sr. Curriculum Developer and Technical Instructor for Carquest Technical Institute in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Prior to his position at Carquest Technical Institute, he owned and operated Automotive Training Technologies which provided technical training to In-Service automotive and truck technicians nationwide. Peter has been teaching automotive technologies for 25 years and has worked as an approved contract instructor for FedEx, Ryder Truck, Penske, NJ State Police, NJ DOT, Robert Bosch, Snap-on Tools and Carquest Technical Institute. He is a licensed Motor Vehicle Inspector for the States of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania and a certified Emissions Repair Technician for State of New Jersey.
Pete is a member with the Society of Automotive Engineers-SAE, Mobile Air Conditioning Society Worldwide-MACS, American Society for Training & Development-ASTD and a proud supporter of the SAE Foundation.

Jimmy Lea

With more than 15 years experience in sales and business development for software-as-a-service, financial services as well as hardware products, Jimmy embodies the fabric of the independent automotive industry. Jimmy is a true family man; he loves to spend time with his wife and three children. Outside of the office, Jimmy enjoys the outdoors and breathing fresh air on the mountain trails. Jimmy also enjoys Ballroom Dancing, SCUBA Diving, Triathlons, and camping with the family.

Uwe Kleinschmidt

• Uwe (“Oovah”) Kleinschmidt, Founder & CEO of Auto Vitals
• Uwe is passionate about solutions for the independent automotive shop owner to succeed in the modern internet era.
• Prior to AutoVitals, Uwe spent 15+ years with Robert Bosch. Uwe is the inventor of multiple patents and is an Ironman finisher.

Mandee Bradshaw

Mandee is the VP of Client Acquisition at Management Success where she develops partner relationships and creates awareness about what Management Success does and developing new client relationships. From a young age Mandee was introduced into the automotive industry through her father’s shop and business consulting through her mother, who was a renowned business advisor. In 2008 Mandee discovered Management Success, where she felt finally at home helping the industry she loved.  A vital part of Management Success, she manages all client services and delivery as well as developing advancement programs and workshops.

Jill Trotta

Jill Trotta is an ASE Certified Technician/Advisor with over 25 years of experience in the industry. Jill
started as a technician and has worked her way through many areas of industry. She’s been a technician,
service advisor, service manager, parts director, shop owner, Director of the Automotive Group, and most
currently she is the Senior Director of Industry Advocacy and Sales at RepairPal.