On the 2025 NVLA Annual Convention in Clearwater, Florida, 4 people have been acknowledged, together with Doug Moore, Gary Mott, Tom Kontos, and Mark Van Nest.
Picture: Nationwide Car Leasing Affiliation / Automotive Fleet
Annually, the Nationwide Car Leasing Affiliation (NVLA) honors people who embody one of the best of the leasing business, equivalent to leaders, innovators, and lifelong contributors whose work resonates far past stability sheets and contracts.
On the 2025 NVLA Annual Convention in Clearwater, Florida, 4 people have been acknowledged, together with:
- 2025 Clemens-Pender Award Winner: Doug Moore
- 2025 Samuel J. Lee Memorial Award Honoree: Gary Mott
- 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient: Tom Kontos
- 2025 President’s Award Winner: Mark Van Nest
Their tales illuminate the eagerness and function that hold the automobile leasing business resilient and always evolving.
Doug Moore (proper) holding the 2025 Clemens-Pender Award alongside NVLA President Tarry Shebesta (left).
Picture: Nationwide Car Leasing Affiliation
Doug Moore: Championing Management and Collaboration
Doug Moore, winner of the 2025 Clemens-Pender Award, is a real business veteran.
Moore has been on the forefront of driving success from his management roles at Somerville Auto in Toronto and Vancouver to his present place as managing director of Leasing Aggressive Edge at Cathedral Consulting. His work main the efficiency teams, bringing collectively house owners, CEOs, and senior managers from throughout North America, has helped elevate the efficiency of many leasing firms.
Moore additionally serves because the board chair of the BFM Basis, a Canadian charity working 51 Mission Thrift Shops, elevating assist for Bible League Canada ministries worldwide.
“It’s a humbling honor to have my title included with earlier recipients of this prestigious award. Whoever coined the phrase ‘Could you reside in fascinating instances’ should have been considering of the automobile leasing enterprise,” Moore stated. “We’re a resilient business constructed on integrity and good service by at all times placing our clients’ wants first. That is what the NVLA is about.”
The Clemons-Pender Lessor of the Yr Award is the highest honor bestowed by NVLA and is awarded to an excellent chief and good friend of NVLA. Since its institution in 1977, this award has acknowledged those that exemplify the values of dedication, integrity, and unwavering dedication to our occupation.
“Doug Moore not solely upholds these beliefs – he embodies them,” Tarry Shebesta, NVLA president, stated. “His ardour for advancing our business and supporting his friends is actually inspiring, and his contributions to the business and NVLA are immeasurable.”
Gary Mott (left) and Tarry Shebesta (proper) pose for a photograph on the NVLA awards ceremony.
Picture: Nationwide Car Leasing Affiliation
Gary Mott: Innovating with Integrity
Gary Mott, honored with the 2025 Samuel J. Lee Memorial Award, has been a driving power within the business for greater than three a long time. From his early days at FLD to his present position as president and principal, Mott’s profession has been a testomony to exhausting work, imaginative and prescient, and management.
“However what really units Gary aside isn’t just his spectacular profession trajectory, however his unwavering dedication to innovation,” Shebesta stated. “Via his management, he has not solely superior his firm however has additionally contributed to the broader evolution of car leasing. His dedication, integrity, and forward-thinking strategy have made an indelible mark on this business, alongside together with his long-time assist of NVLA.”
The Samuel J. Lee Memorial Award is introduced to distinctive non-lessor people whose work has impacted automobile leasing. The namesake of this award, Sam Lee, was a pioneer within the subject — an innovator, a mentor, and a relentless advocate for progress. He helped form the business together with his willingness to interrupt new floor and share information.
“Gary’s contributions will proceed to form our subject for years to come back, simply as Sam Lee’s did,” Shebesta added.
NVLA convention emcee Charlie Vogelheim (left), Tom Kontos (middle), and Tarry Shebesta (proper) put up with the Lifetime Achievement Award.
Picture: Nationwide Car Leasing Affiliation
Tom Kontos: Information-Pushed Visionary
The recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award, Tom Kontos’ title has at all times been synonymous with experience, perception, and management within the automobile remarketing business. With a 30-year profession as an public sale business analyst and economist, Kontos formed the way in which to grasp financial developments within the subject.
“Because the newly retired chief economist at ADESA, he has been a trusted voice,” Shebesta stated. “Tom’s impression goes nicely past numbers and evaluation. He has been a thought chief, a mentor, and an innovator. His affect isn’t just acknowledged, it’s celebrated.”
In 2016, Kontos was honored with the Ed Bobit Icon of the Automotive Business Award, a testomony to his lasting contributions to the business.
“Many NVLA members and leaders have had the privilege of studying from Kontos – whether or not by way of his many displays on the NVLA Convention and different business occasions – or his insightful contributions to business publications and media retailers too quite a few to call,” Shebesta added.
“His deep information and talent to translate advanced knowledge into actionable methods has been invaluable to everybody. Kontos’ contributions to the lessor neighborhood are immeasurable. His work has not solely formed the current however will proceed to information the way forward for our business for years to come back. The NVLA Lifetime Achievement Award is a well-deserved recognition of his extraordinary profession and dedication,” Shebesta stated.
Tarry Shebesta (left) and Mark Van Nest (proper) in the course of the NVLA awards ceremony.
Picture: Nationwide Car Leasing Affiliation
Mark Van Nest: A Lifelong Dedication to Schooling
Mark Van Nest, CVLE, CVLP, OCLC, obtained the President’s Award for distinctive management and repair to NVLA.
Van Nest is at the moment the managing associate of MidWestern Leasing in Dayton, Ohio. He joined NVLA in 1988 and attended his first convention in 1996. He has been within the automobile leasing and gross sales business since 1977. He additionally obtained the President’s Award in 2021 and 2018.
“Accounting, advertising, distributors, supportive leasing colleagues, producers. You title the subject. The NVLA convention had all of it!” Van Nest stated.
“By 1998, I used to be enrolled within the Licensed Car Leasing Government Program (CVLE). CVLE opened my eyes to the true worth of NVLA membership. The worth is within the members. Anybody is prepared to assist at any time in any means they will. My thirty-five-plus years of NVLA membership is, indubitably, one of the best funding I’ve made in my automobile leasing profession. I’m proud to be a member, however I take the best satisfaction in being the chairman of the NVLA teaching programs,” Van Nest added.
