The fourth annual class of fleet visionaries were honored at the 2019 Automotive Fleet & Leasing Association (AFLA) annual conference in Phoenix, Arizona, on Sept. 18.

A total of 10 fleet professionals were honored at an awards ceremony during the conference. Of the 10, Sharon Etherington, manager, regional procurement services, Roche Diagnostics, was named Fleet Visionary of the Year.

The Fleet Visionary award is open to any fleet professional who has brought a new perspective to running a commercial fleet with the result that the fleet is more operationally efficient, cost-effective, safer, or any combination of these by introducing new methods, efficiencies, and/or technologies.

The award, sponsored by Merchants Fleet, is designed to recognize and celebrate new voices in fleet management. The honorees were announced by Brendan Keegan, CEO of Merchants Fleet, Tom Coffey, senior VP of sales for Merchants Fleet, and Mike Antich, editor of Automotive Fleet.

The 9 additional fleet visionary honorees for 2019 were:

• James Keding, director corporate transportation, Patterson Companies, Inc.

• SuYvonne Bell, senior commercial operations analyst, Gilead Sciences

• Jody Suiter, manager of fleet operations, BrightView Landscape

• Alex May, senior manager, Rollins

• Joe H. Suarez, senior director of fleet services, Florida Power & Light

• Angelica Garcia, purchasing coordinator, Edward C. Levy

• Kelly Pierce, manager of fleet, Hargray Communications Group

• Samantha Dinges, global data management and analytics leader, Avanos Medical

• Ashley Jach, logistics specialist, Sunrise Logistics

Earlier in the week at the conference, Erin Gilchrist of Safelite AutoGlass was named the Edward J. Bobit Professional Fleet Manager of the Year, and Kenneth Jack of Verizon Communications was name Fleet Executive of the year.