Gary Chard Named SVP of Hagerty Marketplace Operations
Will join senior leadership to help members with collector car purchases & sales…
Automotive enthusiast brand and specialty vehicle insurance provider Hagerty Inc. has named Gary Chard as its new senior vice president of Marketplace operations.
Chard will join the senior leadership team of Marketplace, Hagerty’s growing business to support members and enthusiasts who are buying and selling collector cars. He will oversee all aspects of Marketplace operations, including live and digital auctions, private sales, financing and classifieds, according to an announcement.
“Gary is an industry pro who will help us take Marketplace to the next level as a trusted, easy to use platform for buying, selling and financing collector cars,” said Kenneth Ahn, president of Marketplace. “As one of the most trusted names in the collector car world, Hagerty has an incredible opportunity to capture an even bigger slice of the $4 billion auction market and an estimated $100-plus billion global collector car transaction market, and we intend to do just that.”
To ensure the buying and selling process is as simple and trustworthy as possible, the Marketplace team provides extensive pre-sale and post-sale services, including facilitation of payment and transfer of ownership. Marketplace also includes collector favorite Hagerty Valuation Tools®, which includes more than 15 years of pricing for 40,000 enthusiast cars, trucks, vans and motorcycles from the post-war era to present.
Prior to joining Hagerty, Chard served as vice president of leasing operations & work retail for The Taubman Company and the executive leasing liaison with Simon Property Group. He was responsible for the continuous evaluation of operations to improve efficiency and developing new tools and processes to maximize productivity, officials noted.
Additionally, he was the CEO and founder of a food and beverage recruiting and staffing company, which scaled to approximately 8,000 staff and 2,000 business users in the Detroit market.
“I’m thrilled to join such a trusted and respected company with so much potential,” Chard said. “There is a huge opportunity ahead of this team, and I’m excited for the chance to help Hagerty take full advantage of it while providing an amazing level of service for enthusiast buyers and sellers.”
One of Hagerty Marketplace’s rapidly growing businesses is online auctions, which is currently featuring the cars of former heavyweight boxing champion and business legend George Foreman, including more than 50 collector cars spanning every decade of production from the 1930s through present. The final auction lots will close Dec. 21, with multiple cars ending each weekday.
