Pub. 54 2013-2014 Issue 2

14 J erry Durant is TADA’s TIME Qual- ity Dealer for 2014 and the winner of the Northwood Institute Education Award. Mr. Durant will be recognized by both organizations at the NADA Convention January 25-26, 2014. The TIME award is co-sponsored by TIME Magazine and Ally Financial. Durant is one of a select group of 57 dealer nominees from across the country who will be honored at the 97th annual National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) Convention & Exposition in New Orleans, Louisiana. “The dealers nominated for this award are community heroes, as well as economic and civic leaders who have time and again shown their dedication to making a dif- ference,” said Tim Russi, president of Auto Finance for Ally Financial. “Ally is pleased to once again be supporting these dealers in their efforts to create vibrant, thriving communities.” In its third year as exclusive sponsor, Ally will recognize dealer nominees and their community efforts by contributing $1,000 to each nominee’s charity of choice. Nominees will also be recognized on the recently launched website, AllyDealerHe- roes.com , which highlights the philan- thropic contributions and achievements of auto dealers across the U.S. The TIME Dealer of the Year award is one of the automobile industry’s most prestigious and highly coveted honors. Recipients are among the nation’s most suc- cessful auto dealers who also demonstrate a long-standing commitment to commu- nity service. Durant, 66, was chosen to represent the Texas Automobile Dealers Association in the national competition — one of only 57 auto dealers from 17,000 nationwide — nominated for the 45th annual award. The award is sponsored by TIME in association with Ally Financial, and in cooperation with NADA. A panel of faculty members from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan will select one finalist from each of the four NADA regions and one national Dealer of the Year. “We started in 1970 with a Chevrolet dealership located on six acres,” nominee Durant said. “We now have seven brands and more than 60 acres.” But the expansion did not come easy. “At the time we were in the middle of building a new building and renovating old facilities, the bottom dropped out of the car business,” he explained. “The pain of 2009 and 2010 was terrible. This year makes everything we went through seem like a bad dream and the pain is a distant memory.” A 1965 graduate of Granbury High School in Granbury, Texas, Durant earned a degree in business administration, major- ing in banking and finance, at the Univer- sity of North Texas in Denton, where he graduated in 1969 and was a member of Kappa Alpha fraternity. He worked for his family’s dealership in Granbury before buying a bankrupt store in Weatherford in 1970, which he named Jerry’s Chevrolet. Today, he has three additional dealerships representing brands Toyota, Scion and Hyundai, all located in his county or the adjacent county. Jerry Durant to be Honored By Time Magazine and Northwood University