Wheels/Donlen Announces Senior Leadership Structure

The new fleet & mobility powerhouse, Wheels/Donlen recently announced the structure of its Executive Leadership Team (ELT). The ELT features representation from both legacy companies and will focus on “bringing together the best of both organizations to become an even stronger and more innovative fleet management company,” according to a recent press release.

Shlomo Crandus will serve as executive and CEO and oversee the following divisions and leaders:

• Donlen – Tom Callahan, President
• Finance – Eric Hiller, Acting CFO
• Operations and Product Strategy – Ahsan Rahim, Acting COO
• Information Technology – Tim O’Hara, CIO
• Legal – Ilese Flamm, General Counsel
• Human Resources – Mary Formosa, CHRO
• Sales and Client Relations – Laura Jozwiak, SVP
• Customer Experience – Jim Wohlever, SVP

The release states that the leadership team “has set very high expectations for ourselves to bring the best results to our clients in a manner that is true to the rich legacies of our two predecessors.”

For now, however, the release states the two companies will continue to operate as separate entities for the foreseeable future. They have intentionally not bound themselves to any timelines or deadlines.

This plays well into the merger plan, as “[Wheels/Donlen] wants to ensure we do it in the best and most thoughtful way.”

 

The Wheels/Donlen Executive Leadership Team

Shlomo Crandus

Shlomo Crandus was named Chief Executive Officer (CEO) on October 29, 2021 after beginning his career at Wheels 16 years ago. He is responsible for leading the overall strategic direction for the combined Donlen and Wheels businesses and bringing together two best-in-class fleet management companies to drive growth and revenue opportunities. Shlomo proudly continues the company’s legacy of passionately striving to bring clients success and supporting a high performing and ethical business culture. Prior to becoming CEO, Shlomo was the Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer (CFO), where he was responsible for leading the accounting, financial reporting, billing, tax, treasury, credit and risk management, legal compliance, financial planning, collections and accounts payable functions. Prior to Wheels, Shlomo held several leadership positions at Transamerica Finance Corporation and KPMG.

 

Tom Callahan

As President, Tom is an accomplished executive who brings invaluable perspective and customer focus to Donlen. Tom will work closely with the CEO and lead all marketing, communications and other special projects including certain go to market strategies. His attention to employee satisfaction, customer retention and corporate culture ensure that clients remain completely satisfied with our performance. Under Tom's leadership, Donlen implemented several ways to measure and validate our approach to customer relationships, earning Donlen unprecedented year-over-year customer satisfaction and retention results. Tom has deep roots in the automotive and commercial fleet industries, holding several leadership positions at Ford Motor Company and several global leadership positions at GE, including running the GE Fleet commercial team in Japan, President of GE Fleet in Australasia, and Managing Director of Sales Finance for GE Consumer Finance in the UK.

 

Laura Jozwiak

As Senior Vice President of Sales and Client Relations, Laura oversees the Sales, Account Management, Client Relations, Client Analytics and Customer Experience functions. She leads all sales, client retention, and opportunities, providing strategic account management guidance and analytic solutions to assist our clients in making informed decisions that improve the performance of their fleets. Laura’s career in fleet management spans three decades and includes a wealth of experience, not only in strategic management but also in operations areas, including license and titling, acquisitions, and fuel.

 

 

 

Jim Wohlever

Jim Wohlever serves as Senior Vice President of Customer Experience, in this role Jim focuses on fostering a deeper intimacy with our customers and better aligning processes and deliverables to our client’s expectations. Throughout his career, Jim has led customer-focused initiatives that define corporate goals in terms that can be understood by customers, and he has helped align functional areas of companies to better deliver on customer commitments. Prior experience includes senior leadership positions in Marketing and Insurance products at GE, Account Management focused on working with the clients to develop programs to improve retention and growth for Ceridian, and most recently, President and COO of Roadside Protect, a specialty roadside assistance administrator.

 

Ahsan Rahim

As Acting Chief Operating Officer, Ahsan leads the companywide Product Management, Global Product and Operations departments. He also oversees critical day-to-day business functions including vehicle acquisition, remarketing, truck consulting, compliance services, fuel, driver call center, procurement, and quality. Ahsan has over 20 years of experience in business-to-business technology and service businesses. Prior to joining Wheels, Ahsan spent 12 years at Truven Health Analytics as Senior Vice President and head of Business Operations, responsible for product strategy and commercialization, pricing, marketing, and sales operations.

 

 

Tim O’Hara

As Chief Information Officer, Tim leads the Information Technology departments. His teams are responsible for developing and managing our client-facing systems, internal networks, business continuance applications, IT security and systems infrastructure. Tim has 30 years of leadership experience in IT application and infrastructure strategies, enterprise architecture optimization and ebusiness integrations for multi-billion-dollar enterprises. Prior to joining Wheels, Tim spent 19 years at Essendant, Inc., where he rose to the rank of Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer. As CTO, Tim was responsible for overall IT strategy and initiatives for all Essendant business units.

 

 

Eric Hiller

As Acting Chief Financial Officer, Eric oversees the Corporate Finance, Accounting, Credit, Risk Management, Tax, Reimbursement Operations, Internal Controls, Compliance, and Treasury functions. Eric joined Donlen in 2012 from the Hertz Corporation, where he was the Senior Director of Global Financial Planning and Analysis. In that capacity, he led the Hertz Global FP&A team in the development of financial projections and analyses to drive strategic business growth with a focus on continuous financial and operational improvement. During his 16 years with Hertz, Eric held several other key leadership financial roles.

 

 

Ilese Flamm

As General Counsel, Ilese leads the company’s legal function. Ilese’s client focused approach to legal topics and fleet expertise will benefit clients and help shape our combined companies’ strategic direction on risk management. Ilese’s wealth of senior corporate legal and compliance experience includes almost 25 years with companies such as The Walt Disney Company, in which Ilese held the role of Senior Counsel, Wyndham Worldwide, where she served as the Executive Vice President and General Counsel of RCI, and Shell Vacations as the Executive Vice President for Legal Affairs.

 

 

Mary Formosa

As Chief Human Resources Officer, Mary leads the Human Resources department, which includes HR strategy, employee relations, talent acquisition, talent management, engagement, organizational design and effectiveness, compensation, benefits, HRIS, internal communications and diversity, equity and inclusion. Mary also leads our Facilities and Mail Center functions. Mary has more than 25 years of human resources, labor relations and global human resources experience. Prior to joining Wheels, she was Vice President of Global Products at World Kitchen, Vice President of Global Operations at Navistar and held several leadership roles at Tribune Company.