Guests of Bobit Business Media’s 2025 Agent Summit and the co-located Ethical F&I Managers Conference honored this year’s class of the F&I Hall of Fame. 

MEET THE 2025 F&I HALL OF FAME HONOREES & SPONSORS

APCO Holdings CEO Tony Wanderon, who developed and co-sponsored the Hall of Fame program in partnership with BBM and hosted the induction ceremony and an “F&I Legends” panel discussion, said the hall of fame can help create the future of the segment.

“The F&I Hall of Fame is crucial in recognizing and celebrating the achievements of finance and insurance professionals who have made a lasting impact,” he said. 

“It serves as a source of inspiration to others in the industry, preserving the legacy of those who have contributed to innovation, ethical leadership and the overall advancement of F&I practices. By honoring F&I trailblazers each year, the Hall of Fame encourages continuous improvement, professional excellence, and a commitment to customer service within the industry.”

In attendance was CEO Jim Ganther and his team from Mosaic Compliance Services, the program’s other co-sponsor. 

“Mosaic is grateful to sponsor this initiative,” Ganther said. “On a personal level, those honored in the inaugural class last year all played a role in my development and the success of Mosaic. We stand on the shoulders of giants, and it’s a worthy effort to recognize who those giants are. We are all in their debt.” 

Last year’s inaugural hall of fame class included Larry Dorfman, co-founder and former chairman of APCO Holdings, Arden Hetland, former owner and CEO of American Financial & Automotive Services, and David Robertson, founding member, owner and chairman of the Association of Finance & Insurance Professionals.

Having set a high bar, the 2025 selection committee sorted through hundreds of nominations and landed on five “giants” who made their marks in various aspects of the auto finance sector. 

Randy Hoffman

The COO of the Delray, Fla.-based Ed Morse Automotive Group joined the business in 1994 after breaking into the industry at what was then the nation’s largest Chevrolet dealership, part of the Mike Maroone group. 

“My thought was, I’ll do this for six months until I decided what direction I wanted to pursue for a career,” Hoffman said. “Thirty-seven-plus years later, I could and would never do anything any differently. The auto industry is the best industry in the world.”

Hoffman describes Maroone and Morse as “pioneers” who gave him the opportunity to learn and grow as the industry evolved. And evolve it did, as Hoffman led his dealerships through the advent of online research and shopping and the still-accelerating trend toward consolidation. 

Adapting to a digital world and keeping pace with increasingly powerful competitors requires leadership, a quality Hoffman is known for and takes seriously. 

“Leadership is the ability to influence and inspire others. True leaders revel in the success of others. That success can be different to each person. A leader will identify others’ goals, attributes, fears and abilities. That same leader will alleviate the fears, accentuate the abilities, assess his or her goals, and help them to achieve all that their life and career has to offer.”

In his introduction preceding the panel, Wanderon, a longtime friend and business partner, noted Hoffman is quick to credit others for his success. 

“But he needs to look inside and see what he’s done for the organization and the industry,” he said. “I can’t tell you that there has been somebody that I have ever met that has been so open to help others in the industry that are looking for guidance, direction and opportunity.”

Terry O’Loughlin

The attorney by trade is among the industry’s foremost legal and compliance experts. He is the longtime director of compliance for Reynolds and Reynolds’ Document Solutions division, a prolific author and speaker and frequent interview subject. 

But among colleagues and industry members, he is affectionately known as “The Regulator,” a former prosecutor and accountant who led a task force for the Florida attorney general’s office that settled more than 1,600 dealer complaints totaling more than $15 million in penalties and restitution. 

He then crossed over to the F&I industry, but unlike most F&I Hall of Famers, O’Loughlin didn’t get his start on a showroom floor. 

“I became a receiver of a car dealership when the owner became a person of interest regarding a murder in 1989. The murderer, who had worked as a wrecker for the dealer and became his wife, was convicted in 2023,” O’Loughlin said. “This experience provided me with some understanding of car sales and financing. This responsibility developed into my role as the state’s point of contact for almost all dealer complaints for 16 years.”

That time frame saw the introduction of a “litany” of new rules and regulations that altered the F&I landscape, O’Loughlin said, listing federal and state rules restricting contact, Gramm-Leach-Bliley and Dodd-Frank, the Privacy and Safeguards rules, the establishment of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and passage of hundreds of state laws, not to mention updates and litigation relating to Truth in Lending Act and Unfair, Deceptive and Abusive Practices, among others, as examples. 

Before and since joining Reynolds in 2006, O’Loughlin’s industry profile as a trusted source for all things car law has only grown. But when asked about his accomplishments during the F&I Legends panel discussion, he described his work in modest terms. 

“I peddle paper documents the consumers sign on all their transactions. And what I’ve learned is to listen to dealers and people in the community, the affiliate companies, to find out what they want in these documents,” he said. “Because, as you know, there are legal requirements. There’s an awful lot of material in there that we draft that should favor one party, and that party is the party we serve, the dealer community and your community.”

Larry Pomarico

The 2025 class includes the F&I Hall of Fame’s first posthumously inducted member. Pomarico died suddenly in 2021 at 65. He was represented on the panel and at the induction ceremony by close friend and colleague Bill Wilson, president of sales distribution for Acrisure Protection Group. 

Pomarico was a Denver native who earned degrees in marketing and finance from the University of Northern Colorado and joined Pat Ryan & Associates in 1987. He would advance to the position of regional vice president in charge of Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and New Mexico before leaving in 1999 to co-found his own agency, SouthWest Dealer Services, with Steve Alderson.

By the time Pomarico and Alderson sold SWDS to Acrisure, it had grown into a 400-employee, 30-state enterprise. Pomarico served as president of the combined company until his death. 

Wilson met Pomarico when he joined the Pat Ryan organization in 1995. He said Pomarico exemplified leadership and adaptability as the industry changed around him. 

“When Larry first opened his agency, there really was only one major public company — AutoNation — and now there are multiple public companies, along with many, many other mega-regional dealer groups. To be able to stay competitive, partnerships with your TPAs and size and breadth of your company has become a bigger part of the business.”

Wilson noted that Pomarico, the only nondealer to have been inducted into the Colorado Auto Dealer Association’s Hall of Fame, was known for his big heart and gentle spirit and always put people first, as captured by something Pomarico once wrote to Acrisure staff and that Wilson shared with the Hall of Fame panel audience.

“My preference is to simply celebrate our ‘social and economic gains we’ve achieved’ and never take them for granted. I know for me there has never been a better platform and group of people to achieve my dreams than SWDS [and the] F&I industry has provided me,” Pomarico once said. “With the blessings I and we have achieved, I also never try to forget to not only take but give back and to always remember it’s not just our ability to give back financially but with our hearts.” 

Kelly Price

Innovation and entrepreneurship have helped define Price’s career, from her early days in retail sales and finance through her stewardship of National Automotive Experts and its signature, game-changing lifetime warranty program, Warranty Forever. But as Wanderon pointed out in his introduction, her legacy will be that of an extraordinarily giving individual. 

In 2020, the pair spearheaded the creation of the F&I Providers Relief Fund for industry workers affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Within the fund’s first few months of existence, more than $500,000 had been raised and donated to more than 400 people.

“We could never have asked for a better partner, and there’s no way in the world — even with the money that we raised — we could have done what we did without her,” Wanderon said. 

Those who know Price also know the relief fund is the tip of her charitable iceberg. Yet her tireless efforts on behalf of the disadvantaged are equaled by her contributions to the F&I industry. By the time she sold NAE to Portfolio in 2020, she had established herself as an industry leader, a reputation she maintains as a founding partner and CEO of Driven Capital Partners. 

Asked to define leadership, Price said, “Leadership is, first and foremost, about putting people first. A great leader leads by example — demonstrating care, integrity and respect in every interaction. It’s about doing what you say you will do, treating everyone with dignity, and creating an environment where people feel valued and empowered.”

Like her fellow inductees, Price’s career has overlapped with seismic shifts in the F&I industry. She pointed to increased regulatory oversight, and consolidation of dealerships, agencies and providers, as key drivers of change and urged her colleagues to keep their eyes on the proverbial prize. 

“The pressure for financial performance has intensified and, unfortunately, that has sometimes come at the cost of customer care,” she said. “Our response must be to prioritize people over profits — ensuring that our dealers, agents and customers receive the service and integrity they deserve.”

Ron Reahard

Reahard’s auto industry career began inauspiciously. It was 1975, and he was a college student who had answered a classified ad for a car salesman. 

“And I went to work for probably the crookedest dealer I’ve ever seen to this day,” he said. Concerned about the “less than ethical” practices he’d observed, and with the help of Steve Goble — a then-sales manager at another dealership who sold Reahard a car and remains his best friend — he found his way into a better job, starting as an F&I manager after completing World Service Life’s training program. 

“And I’ve been in F&I pretty much ever since,” he said, underselling a storied career as a teacher, mentor, author and speaker whose name and that of the company he founded, Reahard & Associates, would become synonymous with the art and science of F&I training. 

Reahard taught his first F&I class in 1985 and founded his company in 2001. But he never forgot the lessons imparted by his first job, pledging to always put people first — for the customer’s sake, as well as the F&I professional’s career goals and personal well-being. 

“Customers will pay thousands of dollars to someone capable of informing and educating them about all the options available in connection with their purchase and helping them make an informed decision about those options,” he said. “They won’t pay anything for a sales pitch they don’t want to hear. Our company’s focus is on improving F&I managers’ ability to help customers and provide them with the knowledge, training and tools they need to do that.”

Reahard said he felt humbled by his induction into the F&I Hall of Fame and the recognition it bestowed on his company, his mentors and his role models. 

“Leadership is the ability to inspire, motivate and guide people to work together toward a shared goal. It requires you to live, eat, sleep and breathe your core values. It requires a passion for what you do, a clear vision for the future, a plan to make that vision a reality, and a compelling higher purpose that motivates and inspires others to support your efforts.”

About the Author: Tariq Kamal is an auto industry executive and consultant.