Juanita Powell Baranco is the Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Baranco Automotive Group, which she co-founded with her husband, Gregory Baranco in 1978. It was one of the first African American owned car dealerships in the metropolitan Atlanta area. Today the dealerships consist of Baranco Buick Pontiac-GMC Truck of Liburn, GA; Baranco Acura of Morrow, GA; and Mercedes-Benz of Buckhead, GA. The group is one of the most successful urban businesses in the world, with annual sales reaching nearly $100 million dollars. In addition to her enormous success as a top business leader, Baranco is equally influential in the education sector of Georgia. With the strong influence of her mother, who was an educator, and her interest in her four children’s education, Baranco has served as chair of the DeKalb County Education Task Force and as a member of the Georgia State Board of Education. She was appointed by Governor Zell Miller to the Board of Regents and in 1995 became the first African American woman to chair the board. She also serves on the Board of Trustees of Clark Atlanta University. Her business and community activities have won her numerous awards. 

Marion Luna Brem was diagnosed with a terminal illness and told she had only 2 to 5 years to live. Despite the fact that she was recently divorced and had an emergency hysterectomy, a radical mastectomy and daily chemotherapy treatments, she put on a wig and went to auto dealerships asking for a sales position. She was turned down 16 times. At the 17th dealership the sales manager felt that she was "nervy" enough to succeed and hired her. Her determination paid off. A year later she won the "Salesman of the Year" award. Within four years, Brem opened her first dealership, Love Chrysler, Inc. in Corpus Christi. With her two sons active in her businesses, she opened six additional companies including a second auto dealership in Texas, an ad agency and a real estate holding company. A few years ago she wrote a book, The 7 Greatest Truths About Successful Women followed by her latest book Women Make The Best Salesmen. Her numerous professional accomplishments, both inside and outside the male-dominated automotive industry, include being inducted into “The International Automotive Hall of Fame.” She currently travels as an international speaker.

Rita Case is the Chief Operating Officer of the Rick Case Automotive Group, and, along with her husband Rick, operate 15 dealerships in three states with more than 1000 employees. Working together, their dealership group has become one of the top 20 performing groups in the country. The Acura dealership in Ft. Lauderdale has been recognized as the World’s Largest Volume Dealer seven years in a row. Rick Case Honda in south Florida is the world’s largest dealership with over half a million square feet and holds the sales record for the most new Hondas sold in a single month, as well as one full year. In addition to the dealerships, Rita Case is devoted to children’s causes. She and her husband built the Rick and Rita Case Boys & Girls Club, pledged $450,000 to the Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital and provided thousands of bicycles to underprivileged children through the Rick Case Bikes for Kids program since 1982.

Irma Elder is an automotive industry icon. Elder was born in Xicotencalt, Mexico, and moved with her family to Florida as a teen. She spoke only a few words of English. In November 1983, her husband James died suddenly leaving Irma to take over the reins of the auto dealership business they owned in Troy, Michigan. She became the first woman to own a Ford dealership in the greater Detroit area. Today, the Elder Automotive Group has grown to encompass not only Elder Ford, but Jaguar of Troy and Saab of Troy (both one of the top dealerships of their franchise in North America in volume of automotive sales), Aston Martin of Troy, Signature Ford Lincoln-Mercury-Jeep of Owosso, Michigan; Signature Ford of Perry, Michigan and the newest dealerships: Jaguar  and Aston Martin of Tampa, Florida; Saab of Tampa plus Jaguar Land Rover of Lakeside and Saab of Lakeside, the last three all located in Macomb County, Michigan. The Elder Automotive Group consistently ranks in the top 10 Hispanic Business Magazine's top 500 Hispanic-owned corporations (the only woman-owned corporation in the top ten).

Lynn Kimmel and her mother Freda Lockhart represent two generations of women-owned dealerships with a third generation, Kimmel’s daughter Kristin Smith coming onboard. Smith recently graduated from NADA Academy and is now working in all aspects of the business. In 1976 Kimmel joined her mother’s Cadillac dealership as the Finance and Insurance Manager. By 1978 she was running her own dealership. Kimmel, along with her husband Chuck and brother, Marc Lockhart, grew the business to include two Cadillac, three Saturn and two Hummer dealerships in the greater Indianapolis, IN area. Kimmel is a member of the Saturn Franchise Operations Team, the National Dealer Council and the Indiana State Chamber Board of Directors. She is a past board member of the Indianapolis Auto Trade Association and the Auto Dealers of Indiana. She also co-chairs the Saturn Regional Marketing Task Force and the GM Women’s Retail Initiative.

Linda Lovering and husband Rich purchased their first Volvo and Isuzu dealership in Concord, NH in 1996 (Presently Lovering Volvo and Mitsubishi). In 1998 they opened another Volvo location in Nashua, NH, in which Linda is the dealer principle. In order to better serve the needs of their northern customers, they built a ground up facility in Meredith, NH in 2005. In addition to their business activities, they shared the philosophy of "Giving back to the Community." Ms. Lovering is on the Better Business Bureau board, the Boys and Girls Club and Partnership for a DrugfreeNH. Both are involved with the newly formed Laconia Boys and Girls Club and both have been President of the Nashua Pastoral Care Center.

Pat Moran is the daughter of legendary auto dealer Jim Moran, founder of the largest private Toyota distributorship in the world. Pat Moran didn't enter the family business until 1983. Moran refused to start in the corporate offices, as her father wanted. Instead, she took a job as a clerk, working her way up through the ranks and taking on a variety of positions—including General Manager of Southeast Toyota, JM's distribution arm—until she was named CEO in 1991. During her 10-year reign as CEO, Ms. Moran established the largest-volume Lexus dealership, JM Lexus of Margate, FL. She also continued to over-see Southeast Toyota Distributors and the finance and insurance organizations World Omni and JM&A for all brands of retail outlets. Moran, who became Chair of the $9.4 billion diversified privately-held automotive company in 2003, retired January 2, 2007. Forbes placed JM Enterprises as the 18th-largest privately held company in the U.S. Additionally, for nine consecutive years, the JM Family was ranked by FORTUNE® as one of the 100 Best Companies to Work For.

Lisa Schomp was only the second female to graduate from General Motors Institute (GMI) Dealer’s Son School. When she took over the leadership at Ralph Schomp Automotive in 1988, one of her first moves was to institute “One Price” no-negotiation selling. That move caused a lot of controversy in the business. According to Schomp, it was scary for the first 18 months but in the next year and a half their business increased 80 percent. Today she owns the #1-selling Honda and #1-selling BMW franchises in the Rocky Mountain Region, as well as a MINI store. Ralph Schomp Automotive has been rated the “Top Woman-owned Business” in Colorado by Colorado Biz and The Denver Business Journal. Lisa Schomp was the 2005 AYES Dealer of the Year-Automotive Youth Educational Systems award recipient and was the Colorado Automobile Dealers Association’s 2007 nominee for the annual Time Magazine Quality Dealer Award. She, along with her life and business partner Mark, spend much of their time in construction meetings discussing design and build out of the 26-acres they recently purchased for their growing business.

Kitty Van Bortel owns the top selling Subaru dealership in the nation, as well as one of the most successful Ford dealerships in a multi-state area. Her automotive group is one of the fastest growing, privately-held companies in the greater Rochester, NY area. With an investment of only $500, Van Bortel founded her first used car dealership in her front yard in 1985, which lead to her first Subaru dealership. Van Bortel Subaru was open for only a year when she was inducted into the Subaru Chairman’s Roundtable…a select organization of the top 20 dealers in the nation. Customers of Van Bortel Subaru and Van Bortel Ford are offered a no-bicker price for each car with full disclosure of all costs. Twice each year, the Van Bortel dealerships conduct Girl Scout Car Care and Maintenance Workshops to teach young women to take care of their own vehicles, and a Car Buying Seminar for pediatric interns at the University of Rochester.

Barbara Volz has been in the automotive business for 25 years. She owns five dealerships in New York and Connecticut that sell a wide range of vehicles including Ford, Lincoln-Mercury, Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Nissan, Pontiac and GMC. She attributes her success to her academic background (an MBA in finance and accounting), to understanding and carefully watching the numbers and to being in touch with her people. She was a recipient of an award from the New Jersey Association of Women Business Owners for her outstanding leadership skills in 1989. Today, Volz’s son and daughter are both actively involved in Volz Auto Group and are part owners in some of the dealerships.

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Patty Yarbrough, who has 30 years of experience in the automotive industry, is the sole owner of McKay’s Family Chrysler/Jeep/Dodge/Mitsubishi in Minnesota. In 1978 Yarbrough’s father, Grant McKay, changed careers and bought a car dealership, Coon Rapids Chrysler Plymouth. Two weeks after he took over the business, the finance person quit. Yarbrough’s dad asked her to join him in the business. She quit her job, took her dog and headed to Coon Rapids to run the finance department for her father. She gradually moved her way up through the ranks of the business. Wanting to expand, Yarbrough opened McKay Family Dodge on January 16, 1984. The car dealership opened with Yarbrough as dealer principal in Waite Park. Two weeks later, Yarbrough’s first child, Tommy, was born. By the end of 1984, employee ranks had swelled to 19 from seven and they posted sales of $7.5 million.