The ballots are in and 11 finalists have been nominated for Automotive Fleet's second annual Professional Fleet Manager Award. Given last year (to Exxon's Jack Lamb) for the first time, the award recognizes an experienced and proficient fleet manager who has demonstrated special acumen in developing and executing key management policies. These policies include driver eligibility and safety, operating costs, vehicle selection, service and repair, replacement cycling, used-car merchandising, and financial analysis. Additionally, candidates have conducted the company fleet department in an outstanding manner, exemplifying leadership skills in a career of dedication.

The panel of judges for this year's award includes: George Frink, Chevrolet; Don Langefeld, Lincoln-Mercury; Hal Barton, Chrysler; Bob Ward, Gelco; Mike Laporta, ARI; Jim Culotta, McCullagh; Don Fenton, Faul Olds; Evelyn DeMarco, Polkowitz Cadillac; Joe David, Pacifico Ford; Warren Young, Manheim Auto Auction; Jack Lamb, Exxon, and Ed Bobit, Automotive Fleet.

The winner will be honored at a special function in Chicago on Sunday, April 20, hosted by this magazine. The winner will be presented a personal trophy, and his or her name will also be inscribed on a larger permanent trophy. Additionally, a $2,000 scholarship will be offered at an accredited university Business School in the winner's name.

Richard Catino

U.S. fleet administration manager for the Maynard, MA-based Digital Equipment Corp., Catino controls a fleet of more than 11,000 vehicles and assets with an aggregate book value exceeding $60 million. Besides developing the fleet's policies and procedures and negotiating with lessors and manufacturers, Catino also oversees budgets, manages cost-containment, and directs an internal rental car program. He's held the post since 1981.

His major accomplishments? "I designed and implemented an internal vehicle tracking system providing up-do-date information on the Digital fleet," Catino says. "I also developed and managed consignment/bailment pools for station wagons...prepared numerous lease/buy analyses...developed and published a fleet-policies manual...and conducted a one-day seminar on 'Finances for the Non-Financial Fleet Manager' at the annual NAFA conference in Los Angeles."

Additionally, Catino served as National Conference Chairman for the '85 NAFA conference in Boston.

Mary Lou Dougherty

Senior buyer/fleet administrator for Ashland Oil in Ashland, KY, Dougherty designs the vehicle selector, coordinates the maintenance system, and oversees replacement policy for a fleet of some 3,200 units. She's also implemented computerization for the company fleet, and compiled a manual on vehicle operating instructions and maintenance for all of Ashland's drivers.

She's been extraordinarily effective in saving Ashland money. "Three years ago, I worked with management of our water waste treatment division, performing analysis data on their so-called 'Pulse Units,'" Dougherty says. "I recommended dollies for these units, which previously had been towed behind the Pulse Vans. I also switched their cars to small FWD vehicles, thus saving transmissions. I saved this division over $85,000 in a short time with these units only."

Dougherty attended the NAFA Foundation course on fleet management at the University of Pittsburgh, and presently serves as chairman of NAFA's Tri-State Chapter.

Betty Dunn

Dunn is fleet administrator for the 350-vehicle fleet operated by Lehn and Fink Products Group, part of Sterling Drug Inc., of Montvale, NJ. Since assuming that position, she has introduced a money-saving maintenance system; created safety-awareness through a communications program; issued special bulletins alerting the sales force to new automotive technologies, and helped to provide vehicles that "fully satisfy the needs of the field, at the same time remaining within the guidelines established by our financial officers."

All the while, Dunn has broadened her own fleet education by attending "under-the-hood" workshops and other kinds of maintenance courses. She's also held the office of treasurer for the New Jersey NAFA chapter three terms, served on the chairperson nominating committee three consecutive years, and been a member of the chapter governing board as chairperson for special events.

Robert Forsey

Employed since 1966 by Teledyne, Inc., based in Los Angeles, Forsey now serves as fleet manager for Teledyne's nationwide fleet of some 3,000 vehicles. Born in Detroit and a graduate of Michigan State University, he describes his Teledyne career thusly: "In '68, we began summarizing the autos and trucks and found that we had 75 leasing companies dealing with 150 divisions. A year later we began reducing leasing companies and also increasing our total units to 3,000. In '80, management decided to abolish leasing and entered a purchase plan for all 3,000 units.

"In 1984," Forsey goes on, "all leased units had been disposed of and the total fleet was then centrally controlled. With the aid of a PC, we've been able to reduce our staff to four people. Our continuous job, while running the fleet, is to analyze the best auto to purchase and the best method for disposal." By all accounts, it's a task he accomplishes in an outstanding manner.

Sal Giacchi

One of the most knowledgeable fleet managers in the business, Giacchi is currently responsible for some 1,600 automobiles and light trucks operated by New York-based Lorillard Inc., a division of Loew's Corp. He moved to Lorillard in 1981 after some 10 years as a fleet administrator with GAF, where he was instrumental in downsizing cars, publishing a quarterly newsletter, and implementing a vehicle management system.

At Lorillard, Giacchi has developed an effective lease versus buy formula; put together yet another newsletter; established a national-account buying program, and used his management expertise to save the firm millions of dollars. An active member of the New York NAFA chapter and a director-allarge for AFLA, Giacchi was among the first graduates of NAFA's Certified Fleet Managers Program at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Tim Hoffmann

Hoffmann is manager of employee transportation and travel services for St. Paul, MN-based 3M, where he went to work as a journeyman mechanic in 1972. A year later he was appointed supervisor of 3M's Automotive Services, assuming responsibility for the management of 15 full-time employees and the firm's multi-million dollar repair facility. Following a number of other promotions, Hoffmann now has charge of 3M's 8,000-vehicle worldwide fleet, overseeing the firm's successful, 105-unit vanpooling program as well.

Says an outside consultant of Hoffmann's department: "This group could run a vehicle leasing company and probably better than many we have seen. Hoffmann has been through various chairs at 3M and has developed a reputation, not undeserved, as the company's automobile expert." Estimated '85 savings to 3M from a corporate fleet management system implemented by Hoffmann: more than $1 million. He's been a member of NAFA since '78, and currently holds the office of chairman of the group's North Central Chapter.

Bernie Janis

A former banker and employee of two Canadian lessors through the mid-seventies, Janis was appointed fleet manager for Tupperware's 6,000-unit Florida-based fleet in 1976. Last year he was promoted to vice president-automotive services for Tupperware's international interests, which now extend to some 19 foreign countries. The Tupperware domestic fleet, meanwhile, has grown to nearly 10,000 cars.

Managing the Tupperware fleet, Janis established policies and worked closely with the firm's original lessor - ARI - and later, with U.S. Fleet Leasing, in all phases of management. When Tupperware decided to move away from USFL into a Dart & Kraft in-house leasing operation, Janis oversaw and ensured a smooth evolution. He's perhaps best known for big-buys originating with Lincoln-Mercury, Pontiac, and Olds, negotiating the proper vehicles with special warranty provisions essential for the firm's largely-female driver-force.

Don LePard

LePard is manager of corporate transportation, planning and systems, for Combustion Engineering, Inc., based in Windsor, CT. He's held that position since '74, developing and implementing a transportation information system; managing CE's planning and computer functions, and controlling operations of the firm's 2,700-vehicle fleet. But he's perhaps best known as a NAFA computer expert.

Under LePard, the fleet financing committee of the New England chapter of NAFA developed a financing seminar that was presented at the '84 NAFA conference in Los Angeles. A year later, LePard worked with the same committee to develop a user-friendly fleet financing software package. Presentation of the package was made at an all-day double session at NAFA's conference in Boston last June. After developing another software package for NAFA to do personal-use fringe benefit calculations, LePard is presently preparing yet another software model for NAFA that will allow fleet managers to determine if fixed or floating financing would be best for a company fleet.

Ron Pink

Ron Pink has had charge of the giant Xerox Corp. fleet for the past 22 years. Based in Rochester, NY, that fleet now boasts over 10,000 vehicles. Pink's many accomplishments include: establishment of a pioneering coupon process to support preventive maintenance; designating a full-time safety expert to prevent accidents (during the last five years, Xerox has driven more than a billion miles without a fatality); lobbying the manufacturers for more timely new-product seminars, and creating a new way to enhance van-interiors in order to "polish the image of driving a van" - and to increase Xerox ROI at resale time.

Pink was also among industry leaders in: moving toward downsized vehicles; ordering the Chrysler K-Car when others were "writing Chrysler's obituary," and approaching both lessors and manufacturers with the idea of trading vehicles just once a year. Doing so, Pink concludes, "enhances control over the entire administrative process ... and eliminates driver-confusion as to when their new vehicle will arrive, resulting in increased employee productivity and employee purchase."

Henry Paetzel

Manager of automotive fleet services since '82 for General Mills, Inc., based in Minneapolis, MN, Paetzel has been charged with developing programs for vehicle acquisition, administration, operation, and disposal. He's also developed operational guidelines for General Mills' Auto Service Center (an eight-bay service station providing gas. wash, and mechanical repairs), and put together an "economically effective car rental program" for General Mills business travelers.

His accomplishments? "I created a management information system for the creation of purchase orders for acquisition and asset management, and am currently converting this to our own departmental microcomputer," Paetzel says. He's also most proud of "providing General Mills with cars a cut above the average fleet car and replacing them before 50,000 miles to optimize used-car recoveries."

The General Mills fleet currently numbers some 1,800 units, all of them company-owned. A member of NAFA since 1971, Paetzel is also a former AFLA board member.

E. Pierce Walsh

Formerly with a Chicago Buick dealership, Borg Warner Corp., and Gelco Corp., Walsh was tapped by Chicago-based IC Industries in 1981 to be director of fleet management, accountable for the administration of a corporate fleet of 5,900 domestic and international vehicles. He also has charge of IC's corporate rent-a-car program.

Among Walsh's accomplishments are: developing firm corporate fleet policy throughout all seven of the firm's operating divisions; establishing firm vehicle mileage and service parameters; renegotiating existing lessor contracts, and implementing lessor maintenance management controls in three major divisions.

A member and former board member and past president of AFLA, Walsh is also a member of NAFA, previously serving as program chairman and education conference chairman of the group's Chicago chapter.