Merchants Fleet Management is pleased to announce that Ken Kauppila has joined the company as Chief Information Officer as of May 23, 2013.

Ken hails from Gurnee, Illinois and has held leadership positions with Experian Automotive, Schawk, Brightstar and Hospira. While at Experian Automotive, Ken rose to the position of Executive Vice President COO/CIO and helped grow the technology solutions company from a start-up to an automotive solutions leader. He has won a number of business awards in Data Warehousing, Technology Innovation and for creating the 10th Largest Database in the World in the automotive industry.

At Merchants, Ken will spearhead the IT department and initiatives on both operations and business development sides of the organization. He will continue the growth of Merchants’ information technology infrastructure which includes data administration, IT operations, and state-of-the art fleet management software tools and solutions Merchants creates for their clients in order to improve cost effectiveness, efficiency, total cost of ownership and service quality.

In regards to joining the company, Ken commented, “I am very excited to join the Merchants family and to be part of a company that combines a phenomenal leadership and executive team with committed and active owners. Focus on the community, the employees, the customers, and the growth of the company are ingredients for sustainable, long-term continued success. I look forward to helping shape and execute the vision and creating the IT partnership with our business teams and customers that will result in driving unparalleled and unmatched solutions to the fleet management industry.”

Ken received his Bachelor of Science in Information Systems from Michigan Technological University and his MBA from The Ohio State University.