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President Uwe introduced Jay and asked for him to come forward for his classification talk. Jay introduced himself as an auto dealer, now being the owner of Park City Toyota. Jay is married to Tracy and they have one daughter Elizabeth. Jay started his talk with the aid of some power point pictures and slides.. His early days were spent in Pincher Creek playing a lot of hockey and with video games. He had many family pictures including one of his Dad (Wayne) when he had more hair and one of his graduating class along with many friends. He graduated grade 12 in Pincher Creek and was class valedictorian. Jay talked about his two sisters and had some pictures of the family. In 1985 he went to Calgary and attended the University of Calgary and received his degree in Commerce with marketing as his major. After University he did get into the auto business but in Calgary with Shaw GMC and stayed with them for 10 years. One of the pictures from his high school years included a girlfriend named Tracy and right next to her was another Tracy who is now his wife. Jay had know Tracy all through school but lost touch with her after he went to University. He went back to Pincher Creek for his 10 year reunion and there he meet up with the Tracy who would become his wife 2 years later. Both had taken their university in Calgary but Tracy has a degree in nursing. Jay and his family moved to Medicine Hat and joined his Dad at Park City Toyota in 2007 and took over the dealership from his Dad in 2011. He very proud of the dealership which now employs 24 individuals of which 50% are female, an enviable thing to have and not many dealerships can say the same. He believes that putting customers first, then having good staff leads to better sales and profitability. Jay then talked about his industry and the shift for cars to electric, hydrogen, self driving etc. He also talked about the new technology for safety such as lane assist, bird's eye view, auto braking and many more upcoming options. Jay is very busy as he serves on many boards including the Medicine Hat Dealers Association, Dealer technology Committee, Prairie Toyota Dealers Advertising Ass. as well as a new start up company. He talked about how insidious some companies like Google can be or will be in the future giving several examples. Some questions where asked and discussed. This was a wonderful presentation and we are very lucky to have Jay as a member of our club. |
