It was with great sadness that Canadian auto dealer learned of the passing of Canadian auto industry veteran John Wright. Originally from Essex, in the United Kingdom, Wright served in the Royal Air Force (RAF) as an aircraft technician before emigrating to Canada in 1957. Once over here, a passion for cars found him working in the automotive industry where he took on a number of increasingly senior sales and marketing positions.
He started working at Renault’s Canadian operations in 1960 and from there, went to Volvo Canada (1963-65) and later Canadian Motor Industries (which imported Toyota, Isuzu and Alfa Romeo models). In 1974 he became marketing and advertising manager for BMW Canada Inc. and four years later took on the same role at Saab.
He later became the marketing and advertising director for Lada cars of Canada Inc., before joining Hyundai Auto Canada Corp as Vice-President of Marketing in 1983, just as the Korean manufacturer was establishing a presence in this country. Wright would be associated with Hyundai for a decade, both at the corporate and dealer level (he owned and operated his own store in Oakville from 1985 to 1988 and served as Vice-President of sales at Hyundai from 1990). As Kia Motors began establishing operations in Canada, he was appointed Vice-President and Chief Operating Officer in 1999, a role in which he served until retiring from the industry in 2002. However, with his extensive experience, technical knowledge and passion for the business, he was lured out of retirement a decade later to help another automaker establish its Canadian dealer network, this time Mitsubishi Motors.
Peter Volny, a public relations and marketing expert and a long time friend of Wright says “he was the most amazing person I ever met. He was extremely knowledgeable and the dealers just loved him to pieces.” Volny says that Wright had “an incredible knack, regardless of what the problem was, to solve dealer issues, resulting in a win-win situation, both for the dealer and the OEM.”
A lifelong car enthusiast with extensive technical knowledge, Wright’s passionate and genuine approach to everything he did made him a much respected and well-loved member of the Canadian automotive community, a member who will be sorely missed.
