Chad Bailey, President of Akron Auto Auction, was inaugurated as NAAA President in early November during the 2018 Conference in Arizona. Among the past presidents of the NAAA are several of ServNet's own who have set a precedent for involved, active leadership: Henry Stanley (Carolina and Indiana Auctions), Raymond Nichols (BSC America), and Bob McConkey (the McConkey Auction Group).
As he spends the upcoming year at the helm of the NAAA, he will be joined by a number of ServNet auction owners, who serve in various capacities with the national association to nurture the health and growth of the industry, lending their expertise and voices to establish policy, explore solutions to common challenges, and consider the innovations that will benefit the wholesale buying and selling process.
Bailey heads a family business founded by his grandfather in 1973. Born and raised in Canton, Ohio, he earned a B.S. in Mass Communications at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio and went on to received his MBA at the University of West Florida in Pensacola. After college, he returned to Ohio, working for one uncle at the auto auction by day, and for another uncle as a restaurant bartender by night. Out of the blue he received an offer from Hilton Las Vegas to take over its marketing department, an opportunity he declined, realizing that he enjoyed the auction business. It was a decision that fit. He soon became the auction's general manager, then a minority partner, and acquired majority ownership of the company in 2011.
Early in his auction career Bailey saw the benefits of active industry involvement, which helped him gain leadership skills as well as find solutions to challenges he faced in operating his business.