James Hallett has been appointed chairman and chief executive officer of ALLETE Automotive Services. In this new role, Hallett will assume responsibility for all of Automotive Services, including Automotive Finance Corp. and AutoVIN, a vehicle inspection business. Hallett has been CEO of ADESA Corp., the vehicle auction component of ALLETE Automotive Services, since 1996. He will continue to serve as a corporate executive vice president of ALLETE Inc. A former independent auction owner, Hallett joined ADESA as president of Canadian operations and was later appointed president and CEO of ADESA Corp. in Indianapolis. Since Hallett joined the company, ADESA has expanded its auction network from 16 locations to 77, which includes 53 whole-car and 24 total-loss vehicle auctions. Hallett was also instrumental in Automotive Services’ entrance into the salvage business in Canada. Following the success of Impact salvage auctions in Canada, Hallett helped engineer the acquisition of a salvage auction company in the U.S., now known as ADESA Impact.