Greg Asadoorian, director of global fleet for Invensys, will retire from the company Dec. 31, capping a 32-year career.

As director of global fleet, Asadoorian was responsible for fleet procurement and operations. He worked out of the company's Foxboro, Mass., facility. Prior to assuming global fleet responsibilities in 1999, Asadoorian was manager, corporate administrative services in North America, which included fleet, travel, and real estate.

Prior to his last day, the New England NAFA Chapter held an old-fashioned "Dean-Martin-Style" roast celebration on December 11. Emceed by Ron Mason, the retired City of Boston fleet manager, a group of illustrious industry guests shared their memories of Asadoorian's fleet career and involvement with the national and local NAFA organizations.

Speakers included Ed Kerrigan, retired fleet manager from the insurance industry; Cathy Morrissey of the Ford Motor Company; Elliott Eichenholz of General Motors; Mary Ann Moeri of PHH Arval; Capt. Tom Mahar, retired fleet manager of Mass State Police; Deb Watkins of PHH Arval; and Tom Flahive, retired Factory Mutual fleet manager.  

Folks unable to attend sent in video clips with special sentiments for Asadoorian. Phil Russo’s comments were deeply appreciated not only by Asadoorian, but also by all guests. Senior leaders from PHH Arval sent video clips of congratulations and light-heartedly kidded Asadoorian about the enormous void left in the fleet industry due to his retirement plans. 

NAFA members gathered dozens of photos of Greg going back to the 1980s to assemble a timeline of Greg’s career and accomplishments in the fleet industry. 

A special highlight of the evening was the presentation of a proclamation from Asadoorian’s hometown of Raynham, Mass., naming December 11, 2013, “Greg Asadoorian Day” in Raynham.  The Proclamation mentioned a few of his many career accomplishments. Among them, his role as past president of the New England Chapter of NAFA and as a long-time active board member. 

Asadoorian was instrumental in organizing successful NAFA membership drives and always supported the importance of the fleet manager’s role to effectively administer an organization’s fleet program. Always an innovator, he worked hard to have total cost of ownership modeling tools developed and made available to NAFA members. In 2007, Asadoorian was recognized with the NAFA Outstanding Chapter Service Award and in 2009; he received PHH’s Lifetime Achievement Award. He also served as a valued member of the PHH Global Advisory Board. 

Asadoorian's family also played a key role in the evening's festivities. Asadoorian's wife and younger son, Adam, attended along with Adam’s fiancée. Adam delivered a heartwarming speech and read an equally warm message from Greg’s elder son, Derek. Adam also got into the act, taking on the role of his father in a skit re-enacting Asadoorian's meetings with suppliers in the early days of his career.

(To view highlights of the evening's events go to the NAFA New England Web-site www.nafa-ne.org). 

Asadoorian started his career with Foxboro Company, an industrial automation company, which was acquired by Siebe plc in 1990. In 1999, Siebe plc merged with BTR plc to form Invensys plc, a British multinational engineering and information technology company headquartered in London with offices in more than 50 countries.

Asadoorian can be reached via his cell phone at (508) 942-3388 or via e-mail at asaman@comcast.net.

By Mike Antich