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Fyda CEO Nominated for Truck Dealer of Year
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- Timothy J. Fyda, president and CEO of Fyda Freightliner, is one of six nominees for 2014 Truck Dealer of the Year. The awards program is sponsored by American Truck Dealers and Heavy Duty Trucking magazine.
Fyda, the largest truck dealership in Ohio and Pennsylvania, also has sites in Cincinnati, Columbus, Pittsburgh and Harrisville, Pa. The company is a dealer for Western Star trucks and Sprinter vans.
Fyda began his career working weekends and summers at Fyda Freightliner, which his father, Walter Fyda, founded in 1954. After college graduation and an eight-year career as an F-15 fighter pilot in the Air Force, Fyda asked his father for a job at the dealership and began working as a service writer in 1987.
Today, nearly 30 years later, he has progressed through various positions and in 1997 became president of the dealership, which sells Freightliner, Western Star and Daimler Vans at locations in Ohio and Pennsylvania.
“The experience of learning the business from the ground up has been invaluable to what I do today,” Fyda said.
Under Fyda’s leadership, the business has expanded with the addition of new facilities in Pittsburgh and Cincinnati. Sales have exceeded manufacturers’ expectations for the last three years and parts sales have increased 64 percent in the past 10 years. In 2008, he founded Fyda Energy Solutions, a company to reduce the U.S.’s dependence on foreign oil, promote environmental safety and support the transportation industry.
Fyda attributes his success to his parents, who founded the company and made many sacrifices to get it on firm ground. “They are the real honorees,” he added. He also credits his more than 350 team members, which he says “are just as responsible as I am,” as well as his wife and four sons.
Fyda has supported and contributed to several organizations, which include the U.S. Air Force Academy Endowment, St. Charles Prep School Endowment, Cardinal Mooney High School, Youngstown State University Veterans Center and the Ron Stoops/Anthony Pelini Foundation.
Nominees for the annual award were selected by state, metro and national association leaders. They will evaluate the nominees based on dealership performance, industry leadership and civic contributions. The winner and runner-up will be chosen by a panel of professors from the Kelley School of Business at the University of Indiana.
The five other nominees are:
- William Don Larson, CEO and owner of Allstate Peterbilt Group, Wayzata, Minn.
- Michael P. McMahon, CEO of McMahon Truck Centers, Charlotte, N.C.
- William K. Reilley Sr., CEO of Lakeside International Trucks, Milwaukee.
- Donald L. Sherwood, dealer-principal of Sherwood Freightliner, Sterling and Western Star, Dunmore, Pa.
- R. Kyle Treadway, president, dealer-principal and legal counsel of Kenworth Sales Co., Salt Lake City.
The winner and runner-up will be announced Jan. 25 during the 51st annual ATD Convention & Expo, which runs concurrently with the National Automobile Dealers Association Convention & Expo in New Orleans Jan. 24 to 27.
The American Truck Dealers, a division of NADA, represents about 2,000 medium- and heavy-duty truck dealers.
Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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