KAR Auction Services Inc. d/b/a KAR Global announced the retirement of industry and company veteran Tom Caruso. Caruso served as executive vice president and chief client officer for KAR Global. Caruso leaves a legacy of more than 40 years of leadership, dedication and innovation at KAR and across automotive remarketing.
Caruso began his career in 1980 as the fleet manager of the Concord Auto Auction, where he became general manager in 1984. He was instrumental in earning numerous local and national accounts at Concord, which led to its acquisition by Adesa in 1992.
In 1993, Caruso was the architect of Adesa’s expansion into the 3 million square feet of former General Motors facility that houses Adesa Boston today. Given the subsequent and rapid growth that Adesa Boston experienced under Caruso’s leadership, the company re-opened the original Concord location as “Adesa Concord.”
Caruso later became executive vice president of Adesa, where he oversaw half of the company’s U.S. based operations, before being promoted to chief operating officer of Adesa and then president and chief executive officer of Adesa in 2009.
In 2006, Caruso was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Massachusetts Independent Auto Dealers Association (MIADA), the organization’s highest honor. In 2012, he was inducted into the National Auto Auction Association’s (NAAA) Hall of Fame and the National Independent Automobile Dealers Association (NIADA) Ring of Honor.
Caruso was also named Remarketer of the Year at the 2018 Conference of Auto Remarketing. Caruso is a past board member of the National Vehicle Leasing Association and MIADA, and he served as president of the NAAA from 2005 to 2006 before later serving on the NAAA’s scholarship committee.
Published in the April 2020 Edition