California Dealer Champion Welch Named NADA Head

After a five-month search, Peter Welch has been named president of the 16,000-member National Automobile Dealers Association. 

Welch will take the reins Feb. 1, a week before NADA’s annual conference in Orlando, Fla. He succeeds Phillip Brady, who stepped down in July after 11 years to take a position at energy company Phillips 66.

As president of the California New Car Dealers Association, the largest state-level dealer group with more than 1,100 members, Welch led a 2011 legal fight against Chrysler Group’s factory-owned dealership in Los Angeles. The suit pushed regulators to enforce state franchise laws that protect dealers, and Chrysler eventually sold the dealership and agreed to pay more than $900,000 to settle.

Heading the CNCDA since 2003, Detroit-native Welch previously led the group’s government affairs office for 13 years. Prior to that, he was a partner at Manning, Leaver, Bruder & Berberich, an L.A.-based law firm that provides legal counsel to dealers.

CNCDA Chairman Darryl Holter, told The Sacramento Bee that the organization “formed a search committee to find a replacement for Welch and has retained an executive search firm to assist with that effort.”

In conjunction with Welch’s appointment, the NADA site stated that the following promotions are effective immediately:  Joseph L. Cowden, executive vice president, chief operating officer and chief financial officer; Andrew D. Koblenz, executive vice president, legal and regulatory affairs and general counsel; and David W. Regan, executive vice president, legislative affairs.